
^<fe 















■<°* 







v t i 



^ 










V^"\/* \**^v* \*^'\/* \ v ^ 



.0 \3 *<...* A <*.'<>..- 

s? « •■ " • < ^o J> . ■ ■ • , *~ cr c • ' ' * "*b 







"oV 




\/ i*-/^/.' 









vv 







«T O 







THE REAL THING 



On An 
Irish Jaunting-Car 

Through Donegal and Connemara 
By S. G. BAYNE 

ILLUSTRATED 







NEW YORK AND LONDON 

HARPER & BROTHERS 

PUBLISHERS 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

T*j Cwtud RtCSlvED 

. COPY B. 



No, 



Copyright, 1902, by Harper & Brothers. 

All rights reserved. 

Published November, 1902. 



PREFACE 

IN the compiling of this little book, I 
am deeply indebted for historical data, etc., 
to John Cooke, M.A., the Messrs. Black, 
Lord Macaulay, the Four Masters, and 
many others, from whose writings I have 
made extracts; and for photographs to 
Messrs. W. Lawrence, T. Glass, and Com- 
missioner Walker. 

I sincerely hope I may be forgiven for 
the shortcomings and errors which can 
doubtless be found in this brief sketch of 
a few weeks' tour through the north, west, 
and south of Ireland. 

S. G. BAYNE. 

New York City. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

New York to Londonderry i 

Londonderry to Port Salon 9 

Port Salon to Dunfanaghy 14 

dunfanaghy to fallcarragh 2$ 

fxvllcarragh to gweedore 36 

gweedore to glenties 40 

Glenties to Carrick 46 

Carrick to Donegal 49 

Donegal to Ballyshannon 53 

Ballyshannon to Sligo 57 

Sligo to Ballinrobe 65 

Ballinrobe to Leenane 67 

Leenane to Recess 70 

Achill Island 78 

Recess to Galway 92 

Aran Islands 106 

Limerick 117 

Cork and Queenstown 128 

v 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

" THE REAL THING " Frontispiece 

RATHMULLEN ABBEY, COUNTY DONE- 
GAL Facing p. 10 

CARNISK BRIDGE AND SALMON -LEAP 
(IN LOW WATER), NEAR RAMELTON, 

COUNTY DONEGAL " 12 

OUR FIRST CAR " 14 

IN THE GREAT ARCH, " SEVEN 
ARCHES," PORT SALON, COUNTY 

DONEGAL " l6 

DUNREE FORT, LOUGH SWILLY, 

COUNTY DONEGAL " 18 

TEMPLE ARCH, HORN HEAD, COUNTY 

DONEGAL " 24 

" McSWINE'S GUN," HORN HEAD, 

COUNTY DONEGAL " 26 

GLEN VEIGH, COUNTY DONEGAL' . . " 34 

A TURF BOG " 38 

NATIVES OF COUNTY DONEGAL . . " 44 

A TURF CREEL, CARRICK, COUNTY 

DONEGAL " 50 

vii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

DONEGAL CASTLE Facing p. 54 

SALMON-LEAP, BALLYSHANNON, COUN- 
TY DONEGAL " 60 

GOING TO THE BOG FOR TURF, BUN- 

DORAN, COUNTY DONEGAL ... " 62 

LORD ARDILAUN'S CASTLE, CONG, 

COUNTY MAYO " 66 

CONG ABBEY, COUNTY MAYO .... " 68 

WATER-FALL IN THE MARQUIS OF 
SLIGO'S DEMESNE, WESTPORT, 
COUNTY MAYO " 72 

KYLEMORE CASTLE AND PRIVATE 

CHAPEL, COUNTY GALWAY ... " 74 

DEVIL'S MOTHER MOUNTAIN, AAS- 
LEAGH FALLS, AND SALMON-LEAP 
ON ERRIFF RIVER, COUNTY GAL- 
WAY 76 

THE FISHERY, ACHILL ISLAND, 
SLIEVEMORE IN THE DIS- 
TANCE " 78 

CATHEDRAL CLIFFS AT MENAWN, 

ACHILL ISLAND " 84 

ACHILL HEAD, COUNTY MAYO ... " 88 

BOYS FISHING, NEAR RECESS, COUNTY 

GALWAY " 94 

A CONNEMARA TINKER " 102 

THE LANDING OF THE COW, ARAN 

ISLANDS " 106 

viii 



io8 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

ON OUR WAY TO DUN AENGUS, ARAN 

ISLANDS Facing p. 

" WE TAKE TO THE WATER IN A 

CURRAGH." ARAN ISLANDS . . 1 12 

CURRAGHS, ARAN ISLANDS .... n 4 

THE CLOISTERS, ADARE ABBEY, 
COUNTY LIMERICK 

SHE SAT AND DROVE ON A LOW- 
BACK CAR 

THE KETTLE IS BOILING FOR OUR 
TEA 



126 
134 
136 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

THROUGH DONEGAL AND CONNEMARA 



NEW YORK TO LONDONDERRY 

AT New York, on the 26th of June, we 
boarded the SS. Columbia, the new twin- 
screw steamer of the Anchor Line. Every 
berth was taken, and as the passengers 
were a bright set, " on pleasure bent," there 
was an entire absence of formality and 
exclusiveness. They sang, danced, and 
amused themselves in many original ways, 
while the Columbia reeled off the knots 
with a clock-like regularity very agree- 
able to the experienced travellers on 
board. 

As our destination was Londonderry, we 
took a northerly course, which brought us 
into floating ice-fields and among schools 
of porpoises and whales ; in fact, it was an 
uneventful day on which some passenger 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

could not boast of having seen " a spouter, 
just a few minutes ago!" 

We celebrated the morning of the Fourth 
of July in a very pretentious way with a 
procession of the nations in costume and 
burlesques on the conditions of the day. 
The writer was cast to represent the Beef 
Trust, and at two hundred and twenty- 
five pounds the selection met with popular 
approval; but he found a passenger of 
thirty-five pounds more in the foreground, 
and thereupon retired to the side-lines. 
Attorney Grant, of New York, made a 
striking "Rob Roy/' with his colossal 
Corinthian pillars in their natural con- 
dition. A long list of games and a variety 
of races for prizes gave us a lively after- 
noon, and the evening wound up with a 
" grand " concert, at which Professor Green, 
of Yale, made an excellent comic oration. 

W. A. Ross, of New York, was my com- 
panion on the trip; A. B. Hepburn, ex- 
Comptroller of the Currency, intended go- 
ing with us, but was prevented at the last 
moment by a pressure of business, which 
we very much regretted. 

The steamer soon sighted Tory Island, 
rapidly passed Malin Head, and then turn- 
ed in to Lough Foyle. When a few miles 

2 



NEW YORK TO LONDONDERRY 

inside the mouth of the latter, we stopped 
at Moville and the passengers for Ireland 
were sent up to Londonderry on a tender. 
We were so far north and the date was so 
near the longest day that we could easily 
read a paper at midnight, and as we did 
not get through the custom-house until 
4 A.M., we did not go to bed, but went to a 
hotel and had breakfast instead. The 
custom-house examination at Derry, con- 
ducted under the personal direction of a 
collector, is perhaps the most exasperating 
ordeal of its kind to be found in any port in 
existence. The writer has passed through 
almost all the important custom-houses in 
the world, and has never seen such a dis- 
play of inherent meanness as was shown 
by this "collector/' He seized with glee 
and charged duty upon a single package 
of cigarettes belonging to a passenger, 
and he "nabbed" another man with a 
quarter-pound of tobacco, thereby putting 
an extra shilling into his King's pocket. 
He was an Irish imitation Englishman, 
and his h's dropped on the dock like a 
shower of peas when he directed his under- 
strappers in a husky squeak how best to 
trap the passengers. The owner of the 
quarter-pound of tobacco poured out the 
3 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

vials of his wrath on the " collector" after- 
wards at the hotel: "I would give a five- 
pound note to get him in some quiet place 
and pull his parrot nose/' was the way he 
wound up his invective. Neither were the 
ladies allowed to escape, their clothing 
being shaken out in quest of tobacco and 
spirits, since those are about the only 
articles on which duty is charged. The 
very last cigar was extracted by long and 
bony fingers from its cosey resting-place 
in the vest-pocket of a passenger who shall 
be nameless — hence these tears! All other 
ports in Europe vie with one another in 
liberal treatment of the tourist; they want 
his gold. The writer landed both at South- 
ampton and Dover last summer, and at the 
latter place, although there were over five 
hundred trunks and satchels on the steam- 
er, not one was opened, nor was a single 
passenger asked a question. Smuggling 
means the sale at a profit of goods brought 
into port for that purpose; nothing from 
America can be sold at a profit, unless it be 
steel rails, and they are much too long to 
carry in a trunk. 

We are now in "Deny," as it is called 
in Ireland, and every man in it is "town 
proud"; and well he may be, as Derry has 
4 



NEW YORK TO LONDONDERRY 

a historical record second to but few cities 
in any country, and its siege is perhaps the 
most celebrated in history. At this writing 
it has a population of thirty-three thousand 
and is otherwise prosperous. Saint Columba 
started it in 546 A.D. by building his abbey. 
Then came the deadly Dane invader, swoop- 
ing down on this and other Foyle settle- 
ments and glutting his savage appetite 
for plunder. Out of the ruins left by the 
Danes arose in 1 164 the "Great Abbey of 
Abbot O'Brolchain/' who was at that time 
made the first bishop of Derry. The Eng- 
lish struggled and fought for centuries to 
gain a foothold in this part of Ireland, 
but to no purpose until Sir Henry Docrora 
landed, about 1600 A.D., on the banks of 
the Foyle with a force of four thousand 
men and two hundred horse. He restored 
Fort Culmore and took Derry, destroyed 
all the churches, the stones of which he 
used for building fortifications, and left 
standing only the tower of the cathedral, 
which remained until after the siege. 

In 1608 Sir Cahir O'Doherty, of Ini- 
showen, who at first had favored the settle- 
ment, rebelled, took Culmore fort, and burn- 
ed Derry. His death, and the " flight of the 
earls " Tyrone and Tyrconnell to France, 
5 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

left Derry and other vast possessions to 
English confiscation, over two hundred 
thousand acres alone falling to the citizens 
of London. The walls were built in 1609, 
and still remain in good condition, being 
used as a promenade; the original guns 
bristle from loop-holes at intervals, and 
"Roaring Meg" will always have a place 
in history for the loud crack she made 
when fired on the enemy. She sits at the 
base of Walker's monument now, silent, 
but still ugly. This monument is erected 
on a column ninety feet high, starting from 
a bastion on the wall, and has a statue of 
Walker on its summit. One of the earliest 
feats in sight-seeing which the writer ever 
accomplished was to climb to its top, up 
a narrow flight of spiral stairs. (There 
would not be room enough for him in it 
now.) 

James I. granted a new charter of in- 
corporation to Derry in 16 1 3, and changed 
the name from Derrycolumcilie to London- 
derry. James II. laid siege to the town 
in person in 1689, but failed to capture it. 
It was defended for one hundred and five 
days by its citizens under George Walker, 
but two thousand of them lost their lives 
from wounds and starvation. On the 28th 
6 



NEW YORK TO LONDONDERRY 

of July, the ships Mountjoy and Phoenix, 
by gallantly rushing in concert against 
the iron boom laid across the Foyle, broke 
it and relieved the starving people with 
plenty of provisions; and so the siege was 
ended. 

There are seven gates in the walls of 
Derry— viz., Bishop's Gate, Shipquay Gate, 
Butchers' Gate, New Gate, Ferryquay 
Gate, Castle Gate, and the Northern Gate, 
a recent addition. Those favorites of for- 
tune who live near New York know that 
George Washington had some two hundred 
and fifty "headquarters" and places where 
he "once stopped," in and about that city, 
and that he sat in over two thousand arm- 
chairs in them — or, at least, that number 
has been sold with the genial auctioneer's 
guarantee of their authenticity. It is es- 
timated that it would require a train of 
twenty freight cars to carry the chairs, 
desks, haircloth sofas, saddle-bags, guns, 
and pistols that have been sold as relics 
from his headquarters at Madame Jumel's 
alone, Harlem absorbing seventy-five per 
cent, of this output. But for all that, 
King James runs George a close second. 
The writer is only one man, yet he has 
slept in three Honduras mahogany four- 
7 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

posters in which James preceded him, has 
eaten with many knives that swept the 
royal mouth, and to-day owns a bone- 
handled razor that is said to have scraped 
the face of royalty; and yet, after all, he 
is only comparatively happy! 



LONDONDERRY TO PORT SALON 

WE leave Derry with regret and take the 
train for Fahan. This brings us to the 
shore of Lough Swilly, where we embark 
on a ferry-boat and cross the lough to Rath- 
mullen. While crossing I saw Buncrana, 
a short distance down the lough. This is 
a pretty village containing the castle of 
the O'Dochertys, now in ruins, and near 
it the castle erected by Sir John Vaughan 
at a later period. Half a century ago the 
latter became dilapidated, but it was re- 
stored and has ever since been rented "for 
the season/' as an investment by the owner. 
One of my pleasantest recollections is the 
week's-end visit I made many years ago 
to its then tenant. It had fine, terraced 
gardens, its outer walls were skirted by a 
trout and salmon river, and there was a 
vast court-yard behind it with cell-stalls 
for the cavalry horses, and even a gallows 
on which to hang captured invaders — and 
many of them were hanged on this same 
9 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

gallows. It was not a pleasant outlook 
from one's bedchamber window, but then 
the victims had been a long time dead, and 
no trouble came from their ghosts. 

We soon arrived at Rathmullen, a his- 
toric spot where many things happened in 
the days of yore. It occupies a sheltered 
position at the foot of a range of hills that 
intervene between Lough Swilly and Mul- 
roy Bay, of which the highest point is 
Crochanaffrin, one thousand one hundred 
and thirty-seven feet. It is worth while 
to make an excursion either up this hill 
or Croaghan, one thousand and ten feet, 
which is nearer; for the extraordinary 
view over the inlets and indentations of 
this singular coast will put the traveller 
more in mind of Norwegian fiords than 
British scenery. Close to it are the 
ivy -clad ruins of a priory of Carmelite 
friars, consisting of two distinct build- 
ings erected at an interval of nearly two 
centuries. The eastern portion, of which 
the tower and chancel remain, was con- 
structed by the McSweenys in the fifteenth 
century. It exhibits considerable traces 
of pointed Gothic architecture. Over the 
eastern window there still remains a figure 
of St. Patrick. The architecture of the 
10 



LONDONDERRY TO PORT SALON 

remainder of the building is of the Eliza- 
bethan age, a great part of it having been 
rebuilt by Bishop Knox, of the diocese of 
Raphoe, in 1618, on obtaining possession 
of the manor of Rathmullen from Turlogh 
Oge McSweeny. The Annals of the Four 
Masters (to which we will refer later), 
states that in 1595 it was plundered by 
George Bingham, son of the Governor of 
Connaught. McSweeny's castle is sup- 
posed to have stood west of the priory, 
but it was destroyed in 1 5 16. It was from 
here that the young Hugh O'Donnell was 
carried off in 1587, and kept a prisoner in 
Dublin until he made his romantic escape 
in 1 59 1. In 1607, the Earls of Tyrone and 
Tyrconnell took their "flight" from Rath- 
mullen in a small vessel. "The entire 
number on board was ninety-nine, having 
little sea-store, and being otherwise miser- 
ably accommodated." After a hazardous 
voyage of three weeks, they landed at the 
mouth of the Seine. 

There is a monument in the churchyard 
to the memory of the Hon. William H. 
Packenham, captain of the British man-of- 
war Saldanha, wrecked on S willy Rock 
in 181 1. Every soul on board was lost; 
the only living thing that reached the 
11 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

land was the captain's gray parrot, which 
the wind carried in safety to the rocky 
shore. 

Here, too, Wo 1 le Tone was taken prisoner 
on board the French frigate Hoche, in 1798. 
Tone was a talented young Irishman, and 
pleaded the Irish cause so eloquently in 
Paris that a fleet of forty-three ships, with 
fifteen thousand men, was sent to Ireland 
in 1796, Hoche commanding. A tremen- 
dous storm scattered the fleet on the Irish 
coast, and the ships returned to France 
in broken order. Nothing daunted, Tone 
again persuaded the French to give him a 
trial with a new fleet. They gave it, but 
this expedition was even more unfortunate 
than the first one, and the end of Tone's 
tragic career dated from his arrest on the 
shores of Lough Swilly. 

A few miles above, Lough Swilly divides 
into two forks, one running up to Letter- 
kenny and the other to Ramelton, a little 
town located at the point where the river 
Lennon meets the tidal salt water. This 
interesting place is celebrated for the fine 
views it affords and for its salmon and 
trout fishing. I was exceedingly anxious 
to visit it, but time would not permit the 
shortest deviation from our rigid itinera^, 
12 



LONDONDERRY TO PORT SALON 

as we had purchased a state-room on the 
Etruria, sailing from Queenstown on 
July 28th. 

It was at Rathmullen that we hired our 
first jaunting-car; and it might here be 
said that of all the vehicles ever invented 
the modern Irish jaunting-car holds first 
place for the use of the traveller ; it is unique 
and there is nothing that can take its place 
for an easy and comfortable lounging ride, 
when balanced by two passengers and a 
driver. It is now improved with a circular 
back and rubber tires, while the very latest 
has a driver's seat behind, like a hansom 
cab. We can speak truthfully of the jaunt- 
ing-car, after having tested its qualities 
for three hundred and fifty miles on this 
trip; but would add that care is requisite 
in arranging for and selecting a car, as 
many of them are old and worn out. 



PORT SALON TO DUNFANAGHY 

LEAVING Rathmullen, John, our driver, 
took us a short cut over the Glenalla Moun- 
tains to Port Salon, through Mr. Hart's 
demesne of fine timber. As we drove along, 
our interest was excited by the masses of 
furze to be seen on all sides. This shrub 
grows about five feet high and is thickly 
covered with sharp, dark -green prickles 
and innumerable flowers of the brightest 
yellow known to botanists. Its popular 
name is "whin," and it is extensively 
used as food for their horses by the farm- 
ers, who pound the prickles into pulp in 
a stone trough, and when so prepared the 
horses eat them with great relish. " Whins " 
grow all over the north of Ireland in wild 
profusion, and the startling blaze of their 
bright yellow bloom may be seen for miles ; 
to those not accustomed to their beauty 
they are a most interesting novelty. 

After driving about twelve miles through 
this kind of country, we arrived at Colonel 
14 



PORT SALON TO DUNFANAGHY 

Barton's handsome hotel on the bluffs 
of Lough Swilly, at the point where it 
opens into the Atlantic. I can hardly 
describe the beauty of this spot— its hard, 
yellow strand, its savage mountains cov- 
ered with blooming heather, its sapphire 
sea in strong contrast to the deep, rich 
green pines. The Atlantic was booming 
into the numerous caves that line both 
sides of the lough, and so seductive was 
the influence of this sound that at our 
first view we lay down, tired and happy, 
in the deep heather, and fell asleep for 
an hour, undisturbed by fly, mosquito, or 
gnat. A British iron-clad was anchored 
a little above, which gave a note of dis- 
tinction to the charming scene; we were 
told it was the celebrated Camperdown, 
that did the ramming in the Mediterranean 
disaster. 

We stayed overnight, and made an ex- 
cursion next morning to the "Seven 
Arches/' This is a short and interesting 
trip, about a mile and a half north of the 
hotel. Here is a series of fine caverns 
scooped out of the limestone rock by the 
action of the waves, which can be easily 
reached by land, but the approach by water 
is grander and more imposing. From the 
15 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

strand where the boat deposits the visitor, 
a cave with a narrow entrance runs one 
hundred and thirty feet inland, and be- 
yond this are the "Seven Arches/' one 
of which, forming a grand entrance from 
the sea, one hundred yards long, divides 
into two. Beyond the left-hand cave is 
another, one hundred and twenty feet long. 
The right-hand cave is again divided into 
four beautiful caverns, through any one 
of which a passage may be made to the 
bowlder strand, whence another arch leads 
towards the north. 

We left Colonel Barton's and drove along 
the coast for a few miles to Doaghbeg, 
where we stopped to admire a magnif- 
icent sea-arch called " Brown George/' the 
most remarkable natural feature, perhaps, 
on the whole coast of Lough Swilly. 
Doaghbeg is a very primitive, native village 
and is the capital of the district called 
Fanet (sometimes Fanad). This was the 
birthplace of the Honorable P. C. Boyle, 
who has made his mark in Pennsylvania. 
Further driving brought us to Fanet Head, 
one of the most northerly points in Ireland, 
on which is erected a large light-house, 
one hundred and twenty-seven feet above 
high-water. This has a group of occulting 
16 



' 



PORT SALON TO DUNFANAGHY 

lights showing white to seaward and red 
towards land. After inspecting the light- 
house, we took our last look at Lough S wil- 
ly, that lake of shadows with its marvel- 
lous scenic splendor, almost unrivalled also 
as a safe and deep harbor. I have seen the 
British fleet manoeuvered in its confines, 
and it could easily anchor every man-of- 
war in commission to-day, giving them 
all enough cable to swing clear of one an- 
other on the tide. 

We coasted the Atlantic for a few miles, 
and then turned into the hills that sur- 
round Mulroy Bay, which soon came into 
sight. When we reached the shore a coun- 
cil of war was held, and it was decided to 
save some twenty miles of driving up round 
the head of the bay, by crossing, if possible, 
at the lower end; so a broad, heavy, but 
unseaworthy boat was chartered, and we 
took Bob, the horse, out of the car and 
rolled the latter into the stern of our marine 
transport. It was no easy task to get 
Bob to face the water; however, after beat- 
ing about the bush for half an hour, he 
suddenly grew tractable, and we pushed 
him into the boat by main strength. The 
passage was ludicrous in the extreme; at 
every high wave Bob would lash out his 
2 17 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

heels and prance. The captain of the 
boat (who, by the way, was an Irish- 
woman) would berate John for owning 
a horse " whose timper was so bad that 
he might plounge us all into etarnity with- 
out a minit's notice!" John kept whis- 
pering in a loud voice into his horse's ear 
promises of oats, turnips, and a bran-mash 
by way of dessert, if he would only behave 
himself. The tide was running strong, 
and when we were swept past our landing 
w T e each became captain in turn without 
appointment, and a variety of language 
was indulged in that would have made 
the Tower of Babel seem like a Quaker 
meeting. The farce was suddenly ended 
by Bob's breaking loose from his owner 
and jumping ashore like a chamois. We 
then ran the boat aground, took out the 
car, and, after capturing Bob with the 
promised oats, were soon on our way 
again. 

In a short time after again starting, we 
ascended a hill and could clearly see the 
spot where Lord Leitrim was assassinated 
in April, 1878. It lay up the bay in a 
clump of woods, close to the water. Lord 
Leitrim had been very harsh with his 
tenants and had evicted large numbers of 
18 



o 
a 
z 

H 

o 

f 

o 

o 

CO 

r 
r 

*! 

o 

o 

d 
Z 

*! 


o 
z 

H 
O 
> 




PORT SALON TO DUNFANAGHY 

them from their farms; they therefore de- 
termined to "remove" him, and a select 
band of them lay in ambush along the road 
and succeeded in killing his lordship, his 
driver, and his secretary while they were 
driving to Derry. There were many trials 
in court, but those arrested could never be 
convicted. As a boy I have been more 
than once startled by the appearance of 
a pair of cars with eight men on them, 
each having a couple of double-barreled 
shotguns. Lord Leitrim was one of them ; 
the others were his guards, going to Milford 
to collect the rents. His temper was so 
violent that the government removed him 
from the office of magistrate. His son, 
the late Earl, was a very different kind 
of man ; he did everything within his power 
to advance his tenants' interests. After 
his death, a few years ago, the tenantry 
erected a fine monument to his memory in 
Carrigart Square. We later read the in- 
scription upon it, which was, "He loved 
his people." 

After a pleasant drive we reached Carri- 
gart and had a good lunch there; we tried 
the Carrigart "perfectos" afterwards, and 
their memory clings to us still! We then 
started for the Rosapenna Hotel, which 
19 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

was not far distant— less than two miles. 
This hotel was built of wood, after the 
Scandinavian fashion, by the trustees of 
the late Earl of Leitrim, and opened in 
1893. It was designed in Stockholm, 
whence the timber was shipped to Mulroy. 
It stands at the base of Ganiamore Moun- 
tain, on the narrow neck of the Rossgull 
peninsula, between Mulroy Bay and Sheep- 
haven. Fine golf links have been laid out 
with eighteen holes, the circuit being three 
miles and a half. For visitors there is 
excellent fishing in the adjacent waters, 
by permission of the Countess of Leitrim, 
and good bathing on the strands of Sheep- 
haven, which afford a smooth promenade 
of six miles. From the top of Ganiamore 
a good view is obtained of the coast from 
Horn Head round to Inishowen peninsula, 
and from its hills a fine sweep inland to 
Errigal Mountain. At Downing's Bay 
there is one of the finest views in Donegal, 
looking up and down Sheephaven, the 
woods of Ards and the tower of Doe Castle 
backed up in the distance by the ponderous 
mass of Muckish. Within a short distance 
of the hotel are three caves which can be 
entered, one from the brow of the hill and 
the others at low water. Near it also is 
20 



PORT SALON TO DUNFANAGHY 

Mulroy House, the residence of the Count- 
ess of Leitrim. 

From Rosapenna we drove to Doe Castle, 
built on the shores of Sheephaven. This 
was a stronghold of the McSweenys, which 
has been, to a certain extent, modernized 
and rendered habitable by a late owner, 
who in doing so pulled down some of the 
walls. It consists of a lofty keep with 
massive walls, which enclose passages and 
stone stairs. It is surrounded by a 
"bawn," or castle-yard, defended by a 
high wall, with round towers at intervals. 
The rock on which it stands is not very 
high, but from its almost insulated posi- 
tion it was difficult to approach. It was 
garrisoned by Captain Vaughan for Queen 
Elizabeth, but was betrayed to the fol- 
lowers of Sir Cahir 0' Doner ty. It was 
besieged in 1608, and Davis says: " Be- 
ing the strongest in Tyrconnell, it endured 
one hundred blows of the demi-cannon be- 
fore it surrendered." 

A little to the north, but separated by a 
prolongation of the marsh at the head of 
Sheephaven, is Ards House, owned by 
Alexander J. R. Stewart. This demesne 
is fenced with a cut -stone wall which we 
skirted for many miles. It is a great show 

21 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

place, with its extensive mansion, fine 
gardens, and beautiful woods, fronting on 
the bay where the Lackagh River runs into 
it. We drew rein on the Lackagh bridge 
to see Mr. Stewart's men draw a net with 
eight hundred pounds of salmon in it; 
there were about eighty in the haul. Will- 
iam Wray, the old master of Ards in the 
eighteenth century, had a strange history. 
He lived here in luxurious state and "dis- 
pensed hospitality with true regal splen- 
dor." His ambition, indeed, appeared to be 
to see daily as much eaten as possible; 
and to facilitate the arrival of guests, he 
engineered a road over Salt Mountain. 
Extravagance, however, at last told its 
tale, and the old man, broken down, went 
over to France, where he died, "poor, un- 
friended, and forgotten." 

After crossing the bridge, we took up 
the road to Creeslough, where Balfour is 
building a narrow-gauge railroad for the 
purpose of giving employment to the poor ; 
and by driving till quite late we reached 
Dunfanaghy. "A great day's work," as 
John put it, while cracking his whip during 
the last half mile. 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

We put up at the Stewart Arms, and 
next morning when we looked over the 
town we came to the conclusion that Paris 
had nothing to fear from Dunfanaghy. 
It hasn't even a Moulin Rouge to boast of, 
but it's a first-class place to sleep in when 
you're worn out on the road, as we were. 
We engaged a large boat with four men 
to row us out into the Atlantic to see the 
famous Horn Head from the sea. The 
sight has really no equal anywhere. The 
writer, having seen it many times since 
boyhood, is more impressed with it on each 
occasion, and this last time it seemed more 
entrancing than ever. Horn Head is a 
range of beetling mountains projecting 
into the Atlantic, and covers in extent some 
ten miles. The crags and horns are six 
hundred and twenty-six feet high, and are 
of all the colors of the rainbow, from deep- 
est black to red, yellow, gray, purple, and 
green. The formation is vast galleries or 
23 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

amphitheatres, broken by the nature of 
the rock into rectangular shelves, on which 
perch myriads of birds, which are as the 
sands of the sea for multitude. Some of 
these birds migrate from Norway, lay one 
egg, and when the young are able they 
return home, only to come back again 
each succeeding summer. There are 
many varieties of them, in part consisting 
of guillemots, sheldrakes, cormorants, the 
shag, the gannet, the stormy petrel, the 
speckled diver, and the sea-parrot. One 
variety will fly with greater ease under a 
boat when pursuing fish than it can in the 
air, and in the clear water they may be 
seen at great depths, using their wings in 
this way. They have seen but few men, 
and do not rise when approached. Their 
cawing and cries are fearful and awe-in- 
spiring, owing to the vast numbers of birds 
that are always in the air or on the rocks. 
The whole panorama as seen from the 
boat is something the beholder will re- 
member as long as he lives. 

We also saw many seals close to the 
boat; these live on salmon. Mr. Stewart 
used to pay a crown each for their scalps, 
but since retiring he has withdrawn the 
bonus and they are now increasing in 
24 




TEMPLE ARCH, HORN HEAD, COUNTY DONEGAL 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

numbers. The sea is very lumpy at the 
head, owing to the squalls that blow down 
over the cliffs ; we encountered half a dozen, 
and any one of them would have put a 
sailboat out of commission in a few minutes. 
They keep a great ground-swell in constant 
motion, and the boat rose and fell on these 
waves like a cork in a whirlpool. When 
rowing home we passed a salmon net at 
a jutting point, with one end of its rope 
fastened to the rocks. We asked why had 
such a place been selected when there were 
so many others easier to get at, and the 
man replied: "Salmon are queer fish; 
they have a path round the headlands 
when going to the spawning - grounds, 
and never leave it. If that net were moved 
out fifty yards it would never catch a 
salmon/' Two men were perched on a 
small ledge close to the water, watching 
the net against seals, as the latter will 
tear the fish out of the nets with the ferocity 
of a tiger. These men had six hundred 
feet of sheer rock above them, and we 
asked how they ever got down or up again. 
"Oh, they're used to it; they've been at it 
since they were boys, and they can scale 
the rocks like monkeys." 

We again slept at the Stewart Arms, 
25 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

and we felt so much impressed by what we 
had seen from the sea that wc determined 
to go on the head itself and view the sur- 
roundings; so next morning we started 
on the car and were soon driving over the 
long stone bridge with its many arches. 
On the way over the bridge we passed 
Horn Head House, the residence of C. 
F. Stewart, a property that has been in 
the possession of the present family since 
a Stewart raised men to fight for King 
James against the O'Neills, in the Irish 
wars. The road winds up between vast 
sand-hills, the sand being of a remarkable 
orange color, fading into pink in the dis- 
tance, while large tufts of rich, deep green 
bent-grass are dotted over its surface, mak- 
ing such an unusually striking contrast 
that we stopped the car for full five min- 
utes to admire it. These hills are alive 
with rabbits; they scampered off in all di- 
rections at our approach and quickly dis- 
appeared into their holes. 

One mile to the west in a direct line is 
"McSwine's Gun/' concerning which mar- 
vellous fables are told. The coast here 
is very precipitous and perforated with 
caverns, one of which, running in for some 
distance, is connected with the surface 
26 



a 

c 
fa 
2; 

a 

H 
t> 


O 

c 
n 

a 
c 

X 

o 
> 




DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

above by a narrow orifice, which is very 
difficult to find without a guide, or very 
specific directions and the close observance 
of landmarks. Through this, in rough 
weather, the sea dashes, throwing up a 
column of water accompanied by a loud 
explosion or boom, which is said to have 
been heard as far as Derry. 

To the south of the rocks lies the fine 
stretch of Tramore Strand. A little to the 
northeast of this spot is a circular castle. 
Continuing by the shore, Pollaguill Bay 
is reached, joined by cable with Tory Island. 
As seen from the land, the coast is rocky, 
broken, and indented, and in about two 
miles rises into the precipitous mass of 
Horn Head, over six hundred feet high. 
This headland somewhat resembles in 
shape a double horn, bordered on one 
side by the inlet of Sheephaven, though 
on the other the coast trends away to the 
south. The cliffs present a magnificent 
spectacle of precipitous descents, shelving 
masses of rock and yawning caverns lashed 
by the furious waves of the Atlantic. The 
view from the summit of the head is one of 
boundless ocean, broken only on the north- 
west by the islands of Inishbeg, Inishdooey, 
Inishbofin, and Tory, and on the northeast 
27 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

by the different headlands of this rugged 
coast — i. e., Melmore, Rinmore, Fanet, 
Dunaff, and Malin heads, while on the 
east is seen in the distance the little island 
of Inishtrahull. 

As we drove down from the head, a 
drizzling rain began to fall and we were 
glad to reach the shelter of the hotel and 
fortify the inner man by a substantial 
dinner. 

At this stage in our tour we were quite 
undecided as to our route. We did not 
like to give up a visit to Glen Veigh, Gartan 
lakes and the "Poisoned Glen/' as these 
are considered the finest things of their 
kind in Ireland, but finally decided that 
a detour which would cost us two days of 
driving would be impossible, owing to 
pressure of time; so after sleeping another 
night in Dunfanaghy, we pressed on to 
Fallcarragh. Inasmuch, however, as I 
often visited and fished in these glens and 
lakes, I may be pardoned for attempting 
to give the reader a short description of 
their principal features. 

Lough Veigh lies to the east of the Derry- 

veigh Mountains, occupying the opening 

to Glen Veigh. It is a long, narrow sheet 

of water; on the north side, and running 

28 - 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

into it, a rocky, almost perpendicular, wall 
rises to over twelve hundred feet, covered 
with Alpine vegetation. Over the top of 
this wail several large streams fall and 
break into cascades as they find their way 
to the lake below. Back of this and fram- 
ing the whole, rises the majestic Dooish, 
the highest ridge in the Derryveigh range, 
standing two thousand one hundred and 
forty-seven feet above the tide. In old 
times I have counted a dozen eagles that 
built their nests on the topmost crags over- 
hanging the water, their majestic, circling 
flights giving life and interest to the scene. 
The south side is a steep hill on which 
grow in riotous profusion the wild rose, 
bracken, creeping plants, ferns, lichen, 
moss, the primrose, the bluebell, the yellow 
gorse, and hazel ; while in trees, it abounds 
in the gray birch, mountain - ash, larch, 
yew, juniper, white hawthorn, and labur- 
nums with their glorious rain of gold — 
a mass of teeming harmonies and con- 
trasts. But by far the finest display is 
its panoply of purple heather, which in 
some places reaches a height of ten feet; 
nowhere else can such heather be found. 
This is the beauty spot of Ireland; the 
lower part of the lake equals the best bit 
29 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

of Killarney, while the upper reaches of 
the glen surpass it in grandeur ; it is indeed 
the wildest mountain - pass in Ireland. It 
may be described as, one might say, a 
salad of scenic loveliness, made up of count- 
less varieties of color, form, and garniture ; 
for I could pick out parts of it that re- 
semble spots I have seen at the base of the 
Himalaya Mountains in India, and others 
where I have noticed a similarity to some 
places I visited near the Hot Springs of 
Hakone, in Japan. A comparison with 
the Trosachs of Scotland will result in no 
reflection on Glen Veigh ; in fact, there is a 
close resemblance between them, and I 
cannot do better than quote Sir Walter 
Scott's celebrated description in The Lady 
of the Lake, Sir Walter, the greatest word 
painter of them all, the wizard of the pen, 
the man who could pick the magic word 
and almost paint a scene with it: 

" The western waves of ebbing day- 
Rolled o'er the glen their level way; 
Each purple peak, each flinty spire, 
Was bathed in floods of living fire. 
But not a setting beam could glow 
Within the dark ravines below, 
Where twined the path in shadow hid, 
Round many a rocky pyramid, 
30 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

Shooting abruptly from the dell 

Its thunder-splintered pinnacle; 

Round many an insulated mass, 

The native bulwarks of the pass. 

The rocky summits, split and rent, 

Formed turret, dome, or battlement 

Or seemed fantastically set 

With cupola or minaret, 

Wild crests as pagod ever deck'd, 

Or mosque of Eastern architect. 

Nor were these earth-born castles bare, 

Nor lacked they many a banner fair ; 

For, from their shivered brows displayed, 

Far o'er the unfathomable glade, 

All twinkling with the dew-drop sheen, 

The brier-rose fell in streamers green; 

And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes, 

Waved in the west wind's summer sighs. 



Boon nature scatter 'd free and wild, 
Each plant or flower, the mountain's child. 
Here eglantine embalm'd the air, 
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there; 
The primrose pale and violet flower, 
Found in each clift a narrow bower; 
Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, 
Emblems of punishment and pride, 
Group'd their dark hues with every stain 
The weather-beaten crags retain. 
With boughs that quaked at every breath, 
Gray birch and aspen wept beneath; 
Aloft, the ash and withe of oak 
Cast anchor in the rifted rock; 

31 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

And, higher yet, the pine-tree hung 
His shattered trunk, and frequent flung, 
Where seem'd the cliffs to meet on high, 
His boughs athwart the narrow'd sky. 
Highest of all, where white peaks glanced, 
Where glist'ning streamers waved and danced, 
The wanderer's eye could barely view 
The summer heaven's delicious blue; 
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 
The scenery of a fairy dream." 

The "Poisoned Glen" lies to the south- 
west, and is a startling contrast to Glen 
Veigh. It has no vegetation of any kind, 
and is a weird, savage canon ending in 
a cul-de-sac. It looks uncanny and for- 
bidding, and seems as though it might be 
possessed, giving the visitor a creepy feel- 
ing as he drives through its gloomy de- 
files. No animal or bird is ever seen with- 
in its confines, as its barren sides will not 
support life in any form. 

Gartan Lough is seen a few miles to the 
south. It is celebrated for its fine views 
and its fishing, and as the birthplace of 
St. Columba, who was born just where 
a ruined chapel now stands and which 
was originally erected, it is said, to mark 
the spot. St. Patrick made a pilgrimage 
to this place in 450 A.D. 
32 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

Twenty-three thousand acres, covering 
Lough and Glen Veigh and the Gartan 
lakes, were originally owned by the Mar- 
shall brothers, one of whom, John, was 
brother-in-law to the writer. Owing to the 
agricultural depression of the times, the 
Marshalls could not collect their rents, 
and rather than evict their tenants they 
sold the estate to Mr. J. G. Adair. Mr. 
Adair had visited the place and become 
so enthusiastic about it that he not only 
bought it but built a splendid castle near 
the lake and constructed an imposing 
avenue, eight miles long, of which he was 
very proud. Soon afterwards he stood for 
a seat in Parliament, as a tenant-right 
candidate. Notwithstanding his politics, 
he had troubles with the tenantry, his 
manager and one of the shepherds being 
killed in one of the numerous affrays that 
occurred on the property. Conditions went 
from bad to worse, till at length Mr. Adair 
decided to clear his estate of tenantry by 
evicting them. Upon this, such strenuous 
resistance and threats were made that the 
matter attracted public attention and be- 
came a source of anxiety to the British 
government; so troops were sent down 
with tents and military equipments, and 
3 33 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

after a time a general eviction took place. 
The tenants had no means of support, and 
national sympathy went out to them. 
Finally, the government of Victoria of- 
fered to take all of them out to Australia, 
free of charge, and as most of them accepted 
the offer, this closed the unfortunate in- 
cident. 

Personally, Mr. Adair was a gracious and 
upright man, but he contended, as a mat- 
ter of principle, that he owned the land 
and could do as he liked with it. This 
was precisely the same ground that Mr. 
Morgan took when being examined in 
New York recently on the witness - stand, 
with regard to his connection with Amer- 
ican trusts. 

Since Mr. Adair's death, his wife has re- 
sided at the castle a part of each year, and 
has recently entertained some eminent per- 
sonages there, as the following item from 
the Londonderry Sentinel of September 
13th will show: 

" Lord Kitchener and the distinguished party 
forming the guests of Mrs. Adair at Glenveigh Cas- 
tle have enjoyed an excellent week's sport. Several 
fine stags have been killed in the deer-forest. There 
was a very successful rabbit -shoot at Gartan on 
Wednesday. On Thursday, Lord Brassey's famous 

34 



DUNFANAGHY TO FALLCARRAGH 

yacht Sunbeam, which has been at Londonderry 
since Monday, left for Lough Swilly, and yesterday 
the house-party embarked for a cruise round Horn 
Head. The house-party consisted of the following : 
Lord Kitchener, Lord and Lady Brassey, the Duch- 
ess of St. Albans and Lady Alice Beauclerk, Sir 
Donald Mackenzie Wallace, the official historian of 
the voyage of the Ophir; Lady de l'lsle, Captain 
Arthur Campbell, Captain Butler, and the Duke and 
Duchess of Connaught. The departing guests were 
conveyed to the Sunbeam and to the railway station 
in Mrs. Adair's powerful motor car." 



FALLCARRAGH TO GWEEDORE 

WE are now on the road to Fallcarragh, 
seven miles distant, and we pass his Majes- 
ty's mail, northbound from Letterkenny, a 
crimson car loaded with mail-bags and lug- 
gage, and a driver wearing a bright-yel- 
low sou'wester. Everything was drenched 
and the horse in a steaming lather — truly 
a novel sight for a denizen of Broadway. 

Fallcarragh is the place from which 
you take a boat to visit Tory Island, some 
eight miles out in the Atlantic. It has 
been called "the Sentinel of the Atlantic/' 
and it is well named, being the first land 
one sees when nearing Ireland. Its name 
means "the island of towers/' and it looked 
from the deck of the Columbia as though 
it had been built up by some titanic race 
of old. It did not seem to us that it could 
be of much value, but it was considered 
important enough to fight for in the early 
days "when giants were in the land." 
The Book of Ballymote states that it was 
36 



FALLCARRAGH TO GWEEDORE 

possessed by the Fomorians, a race of 
pirates and giants who inhabited Ire- 
land twelve centuries before the Christian 
era. Their chief was " Balor of the Mighty 
Blows/ ' and two of the rocks on the east 
coast of the island are called "Balor's 
Castle" and "Balor's Prison." One of 
their number, named Conaing, erected a 
tower on the island, as recorded in the 
Book of Lecan: 

" The Tower of the Island, the Island of the Tower, 
The citadel of Conaing, the son of Foebar." 

It contains a portion of a round tower, 
built of undressed boulders of red granite. 
It was never more than about forty feet 
in height, is seventeen feet two inches in 
diameter, and the walls at the base are 
four feet three inches thick; the doorway 
is five and a half feet high and is eight 
feet from the ground. There are also 
ruins of two churches (a monastery having 
been founded here by St. Columba), and 
a peculiar tau- cross. On the northwest 
end of the island is a fine light-house, il- 
lumined by gas, and it has also a fog-siren 
and a group-flashing light; it stands a 
hundred and thirty feet above high-water. 
Near it is the new signal station of Lloyd's, 
37 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

which is in telegraphic communication with 
Dunfanaghy. There are a chapel, school- 
house, and post-office also on the island. 
The rock scenery of the northeast coast 
is very fine and characteristic; the south- 
west coast is low and flat, and fringed 
with treacherous rocks. It was here that 
the gunboat Wasp was wrecked on the 
22d of September, 1884, and all its crew 
except six drowned. Fishing is the chief 
industry, and the islanders are good fish- 
ermen, pursuing their avocation now chiefly 
in Norway yawls instead of "curraghs." 
The Congested Districts Board have aided 
the inhabitants by supplying these vessels, 
the cost to be repaid by small instalments, 
also in building a curing station and teach- 
ing the people how to cure fish. Quantities 
of lobsters and crabs are caught, and a 
Sligo steamer calls once a week for fish. 
There is a lack of fuel, which has to be 
supplied from the main-land. The inhabi- 
tants have paid no rents since the loss of 
the Wasp, which was sent to enforce pay- 
ment or evict the tenants. St. Columba, 
the patron saint of the place, is reported 
to have landed here in a curragh. 

From Fallcarragh you get a fine view 
of Muckish, with its twenty-two hundred 
38 



FALLCARRAGH TO GWEEDORE 

feet of altitude. While not the highest 
mountain in the Donegal highlands, Muck- 
ish is longer and of greater bulk than any 
of its rivals, and is also more imposing. 
Its name in Irish means "a pig's back/' 
which it very much resembles. Here is 
Ballyconnell House, seat of Wybrants 
Olphert, Esq., where the "Plan of Cam- 
paign" was originated, so well known in 
connection with the landlord and tenant 
troubles in Ireland. 

We now took the shore -road through 
a district known as Cloughaneely, where 
English is rarely spoken and we had to 
make our way by signs, spending a few 
minutes en route at a national school and 
hearing them teach the children both Irish 
and English. Continuing, we passed close 
to Bloody Foreland, a head one thousand 
and fifty feet high, so called because of 
its ruddy color. Arriving at Bunbeg, we 
stopped to feed the horse and take some 
lunch ourselves, and then "made play" 
for the Gweedore Hotel. Our road took 
us past the spot where Inspector Martin 
was clubbed to death when executing a 
warrant for the arrest of the Rev. James 
McFadden, P. P., in February, 1889, m 
connection with the Gweedore evictions. 
39 



GWEEDORE TO GLENTIES 

THE Gweedore is a famous inn, built 
over fifty years ago by Lord George Hill 
on the river Clady ; it has held its supremacy 
as a centre for salmon-fishing and grouse- 
shooting for half a century. The guests 
supplied the table so bountifully with 
fish in the early days that the writer has 
recollections, as a boy, of thinking that 
scales were growing on his back after 
having been at the hotel for a week. Many 
celebrities have fished and shot there — 
Thackeray, Dickens, Lord Palmerston, Car- 
lyle, and a host of others have had their 
feet under its mahogany and have looked 
out of its windows at Errigal, popularly 
known as the "peerless cone/' the base 
of which is not over a mile distant. This 
mountain rises to a height of two thousand 
four hundred and sixty-six feet, scarred 
and naked to its peak. Slieve Snaght, 
two thousand two hundred and forty feet, 
is another fine peak near it. 
40 



GWEEDORE TO GLENTIES 

The name of Lord George Hill, the late 
proprietor of the estate, is so thoroughly 
identified with that of Gweedore that it 
will not be amiss to retail a few facts con- 
cerning him. He first settled in this part 
of the country in 1838, purchasing twenty- 
three thousand acres in the parish of Tulla- 
ghobegly, which he found in a state of 
distress and want so great that it became 
the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. 
Although there appeared to have been a 
considerable amount of exaggeration in 
the statements made, enough remained 
to show that famine, pestilence, and igno- 
rance were lamentably prevalent. The 
prospects of the landlord were far from en- 
couraging, on account of the stony nature 
of the ground, the severity of the climate, 
and the difficulty of collecting his rent; 
but, more than all, the extraordinary 
though miserable system of rundale, 
which was universal throughout the dis- 
trict. By this arrangement a parcel of 
land was divided and subdivided into an 
incredible number of small holdings, in 
which the tenant very likely held his pro- 
portion or share in thirty or forty different 
places, which had no fences or walls what- 
ever to mark them. The utter confusion 
4i 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

and the hopelessness of each tenant's 
being able to know his own land, much 
less to plant or look after it, may well be 
imagined. And not only to land was this 
system applied, but also to portable prop- 
erty. With much perseverance and many 
struggles, Lord George Hill gradually 
changed the face of things. He overcame 
and altered the rundale system, improved 
the land, built schools, a church, and a 
large store at Bunbeg, made roads, es- 
tablished a post-office, and, what is perhaps 
of more importance to the traveler, a hotel. 
He took a direct and personal interest in 
the good management of the hotel and 
in the comfort of the guests who patronized 
it, frequently stopping at the house him- 
self, dining and spending the evening 
with them. Since his death, in 1879, the 
hotel has kept up its traditional reputation 
for comfort and general good management. 
Carlyle visited Lord Hill at Gweedore 
in 1849, and this is the way in which he 
described his host afterwards: "A hand- 
some, grave-smiling man of fifty or more; 
thick, grizzled hair; elegant nose; low, 
cooing voice; military composure and ab- 
sence of loquacity; a man you love at 
first sight." This was indeed high praise 
42 



GWEEDORE TO GLENTIES 

from a man of Carlyle's cantankerous 
temper. Lord Hill was so popular with 
his tenantry that when his horse broke 
down they would take the animal out of 
the shafts, fasten ropes to the car, and 
pull it home triumphantly with the owner 
seated in state, no matter how many miles 
they had to cover. He was a most cour- 
teous and obliging man. I well remem- 
ber how, in the early sixties, he walked 
a considerable distance and took particular 
pains to show me the best fishing spots 
on the river. 

They tell a joke at the hotel, on an Eng- 
lish dude who asked Pat, the gillie, " Aw, 
my good man, do you mind telling me what 
— aw — sort of fish you catch here ?" " Well, 
to tell ye the truth/' was Pat's quick reply, 
"ye niver can tell till yez pulls 'em out!" 

There was a big fishing crowd there, and 
when I announced at dinner that it was 
more than forty years since I had sat at 
that table and fished in the river, they all 
doffed their caps to me — metaphorically — 
and gave me more salmon and other good 
things than I could eat or drink. 

We hadn't time to fish, and so we pushed 
on next day through the Rosses district, 
with all its innumerable fresh-water lakes 
43 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

and salt-water inlets. So intermingled 
were they that it was hard to decide which 
was which, and we finally got to know 
that where wrack grew on the shore the 
water was salt and connected somewhere 
with the sea. We stopped at Dunlow for 
lunch and then descended into the Gwee- 
barra River valley and crossed the large, 
new steel bridge of that name, erected by 
the Congested Districts Board to give the 
people employment on that and the roads 
connecting with it at both ends. The 
way lies through an untamably wild coun- 
try, but with such constant and shifting 
panorama of mountain scenery that the 
attention is never fatigued. You see in 
review the Dunlewy Mountains, Slieve 
Snaght, Errigal, Dooish, and the Derry- 
veigh chains; in fact, if the weather is 
fine — and it all depends on that — there 
is scarcely such another mountain view 
in the kingdom. 

The head of Gweebarra Bay, where the 
river joins it, is a queer - looking place; 
we skirted its shores for miles and enjoyed 
its peculiarities. When the tide is out the 
water is of a seal-brown color, due to the 
peat ; when it is in, the color is bright green. 
Where the tides meet is a mixture of both 
44 



GWEEDORE TO GLENTIES 

colors, and frequently some of the shallows, 
side by side, will be of either brown or 
green, making a checkered appearance. 
While all this is going on, water-falls from 
the hillsides pour their brown waters into 
the bay and very often into pools of green. 
This phenomenon, in connection with the 
pleasing picture formed by the numerous 
small islands which dot the surrounding 
waters, makes it well worth while to wait 
and witness the tide in its changing stages. 
We finished our twenty-five mile drive 
in an hour or so, and put up for the night 
at O'Donnell's, Glenties. 



GLENTIES TO CARRICK 

IN some Irish hotels they set apart a room 
for the drummers to write and eat in, at 
lower prices than the public tariff, and 
this is as sacred ground as a Hindoo temple ; 
for an ordinary personage to desecrate it 
by his presence is simply an unpardonable 
crime and is resented by the drummers 
accordingly. The doors are not always 
marked, and so it happened that I inno- 
cently wandered into this "reserved" room 
in the O'Donnell Hotel at Glenties and 
began to write a letter. I had hardly got 
as far as "Dear Sir/' when the intrusion 
was noticed and promptly reported to the 
proprietor, who came in and apologetically 
asked me, "What line are ye in, sur?" 
to which I promptly responded, "Sell- 
ing Power's Irish whiskey/' He reported 
my vocation to "the committee," all were 
satisfied and I was allowed to finish my 
letter. Afterwards Mr. O'Donnell came 
to me and said with a wink: "It's all 

4 6 



GLENTIES TO CARRICK 

right, Mr. Bayne ; your bluff went through 
with the boys, but 'tis my private opinion 
that ye're buyin' more whiskey than ye're 
sellinY' 

Next morning when the sun rose we were 
off for Carrick, a scenery and ruin centre, 
the forts, etc., dating back to the sixth 
century. This was a favorite resort of 
Sir Frederick Leighton, the artist, who 
frequently spent his summers there. We 
took a noon rest at Ardara and then push- 
ed on to complete our twenty-eight miles. 

Before reaching Carrick we traversed the 
Glengesh Pass, a deep and beautiful ra- 
vine, " with verdure clad/' the hills on 
both sides rising one thousand six hundred 
and fifty feet above sea level, their slopes 
ornamented with many water-falls, all join- 
ing to make up a brawling stream which 
rushed headlong down the valley. Alto- 
gether the place was a most charming 
one. 

The pass was four miles long, and poor 
Bob could not make it with the load, so 
we got off and climbed the road on foot, 
while he fed and followed us with the empty 
car up the steep incline. We nursed him 
into Carrick, but he had to have a rest, 
and after getting it his owner drove him 
47 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

home. And so we parted with John, our 
worthy Jehu, and his good nag, Bob, 
both of whom had helped us well along 
on our pilgrimage. 

As we were approaching Glengesh, we 
met a young Donegal girl on the road. 
She was dressed in black serge, and, al- 
though her feet were bare, her figure was 
erect and her carriage very graceful. She 
swung along the road with charming 
abandon, and might have shone at a " draw- 
ing-room" in Dublin Castle, the embodi- 
ment, the quintessence of unconscious 
grace. 



CARRICK TO DONEGAL 

WE put up at the Glencolumbkille Hotel 
in Carrick. Here we hired a new car, with 
a stout, white horse to draw it, which took 
us to the base of Bunglass Head and wait- 
ed for our return. It is a hard climb of 
over three miles to reach the summit, over 
rocks, bog, and heather, but we were well 
rewarded for our trouble. Bunglass fills 
the r61e of a grand-stand, as it were, from 
which you get a good view of Slieve League 
Mountain, whose base rises abruptly out 
of the sea, which breaks against it with 
great violence. We had heard that the 
golden eagle builds its nests on this head- 
land, but we did not succeed in finding any 
of the birds, and concluded that they had 
flown over to see King Edward's corona- 
tion. 

A view of singular magnificence here 

bursts upon you— a view that of its kind 

is probably unequalled in the British Isles. 

The lofty mountain of Slieve League gives 

4 49 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

on the land side no promise of the magnif 
icence that it presents from the sea, being 
in fact, a mural precipice of one thousand 
nine hundred and seventy -two feet in 
height, descending to the water's edge in 
one superb escarpment, 

"... around 
Whose caverned base the whirlpools and the 

waves, 
Bursting and eddying irresistibly, 
Rage and resound forever." 

And not only in its height is it so sublime, 
but in the glorious colors which are grouped 
in masses on its face. Stains of metals — 
green, amber, gold, yellow, white, red — 
and every variety of shade are observable, 
particularly when seen under a bright sun, 
contrasting in a wonderful manner with 
the dark-blue waters beneath. In cloudy 
or stormy weather this peculiarity is to a 
certain degree lost, though other effects 
take its place and render it even more 
magnificent. This range of sea-cliff ex- 
tends with little variation all the way to 
Malin, though at nothing like the same 
altitude. 

Having feasted our eyes on the beauties 
of the precipices, we then ascended, skirt- 
50 



CARRICK TO DONEGAL 

ing the cliffs the whole way. Near the 
summit the escarpment cuts off the land 
slope so suddenly as to leave only a sharp 
edge with a fearful precipice of above fif- 
teen hundred feet on the side towards the 
sea, and a steep slope on the landward 
side. This ledge is termed the " One Man's 
Path/' and is looked on by the inhab- 
itants of the neighborhood in the same 
light as the Striding Edge of Helvellyn, 
or the Bwlch - y - Maen of Snowdon. 
There is a narrow track or ledge on the 
land slope a little below this edge, face- 
tiously called "The Old Man's Path" by 
the guides. At the very summit are the 
remains of the ancient oratory of St. Hugh 
McBreacon. The view is wonderfully fine; 
southward is the whole coast of Sligo and 
Mayo, from Benbulbin to the Stags of 
Broadhaven; while farther in the dis- 
tance are faintly seen Nephin, near Ballina, 
and Croagh Patrick Mountain at Westport. 
Northward is a perfect sea of Donegal 
mountains, reaching as far as Slieve 
Snaght and Errigal, with all the inter- 
vening ranges near Ardara, Glenties, and 
Dunloe. 

Coming down was almost as bad as going 
up had been, but we finally reached our 
5i 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

car and were driven home for a late dinner. 
On the way we were shown the place where 
Prince Charlie the Pretender embarked 
when he fled from the English forces. 



DONEGAL TO BALLYSHANNON 

NEXT morning, in a blinding rain, we got 
up behind a stout, black horse, driven by 
Charley, a conversational soloist of un- 
rivaled garrulity, who under these con- 
ditions told us entirely too much about 
Fin McCooFs and Red Hugh's feats and 
what they did to their neighbors. We 
passed through Killybegs, but our des- 
tination was Donegal (town), and after we 
reached it we discharged Charley, took din- 
ner, and aired ourselves round the city, tak- 
ing what base-ball players call a "stretch." 
The principal objects of interest here are 
the ruined abbey and the castle of the 
O'Donnells. The monastery was found- 
ed for Franciscan friars in 1474 by Hugh 
Roe O'Donnell and his wife, Fingalla, 
daughter of Conor O'Brien of Thomond, 
and in it they were both buried. His 
son, Hugh Oge, finally took the habit of 
St. Francis, and was buried here in 1537. 
Red Hugh O'Donnell having taken up 
arms against the English, his brother- 
53 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

in-law, Niall Garbh, sided with them and 
took possession of the monastery. It was 
besieged by O'Donnell, and during the 
siege some barrels of gunpowder which 
had been stored took fire and the explosion 
destroyed the building. Red Hugh, after 
the fiasco of the Spanish landing at Kin- 
sale, to which he went, sailed to Spain for 
further assistance and died there at the 
early age of twenty-eight, being buried 
in Valladolid. Niall Garbh, having lost 
the confidence of the English, was im- 
prisoned in the Tower of London, and died 
after eighteen years of captivity. The 
O'Donnells, or Cinel Conall, were descend- 
ed from Niall of the Nine Hostages, who 
became king of Ireland in 379 A.D. Of his 
sons, Eoghan, or Owen, was ancestor of 
the O'Neills, and Conall Gulban of the 
O'Donnells. The country of the former 
was called Tir Eoghan (Tyrone), or Owen's 
territory, and extended over the eastern 
part of Donegal and the counties of Tyrone 
and Londonderry. The peninsula of Ini- 
showen also received its name from him. 
Tyrconnell, the territory of Conall, ex- 
tended over County Donegal. Between 
these races, bound together as they were 
by common descent and frequent inter- 
54 



DONEGAL TO BALLYSHANNON 

marriages, wars were of constant occur- 
rence through many generations. 

The Cathach of the O'Donnells is a 
cunihdach, or box, made, as its inscription 
says, by Cathbhar O'Donnell towards the 
end of the eleventh century. It contains 
a portion of the Psalms in Latin, said to 
have been written by St. Columba and 
which led to the battle of Drumcliff and 
his subsequent exile to Iona. It was car- 
ried by a priest three times in front of the 
troops of the O'Donnells before a contest, 
hence its name, "The Battler." The silver 
case enclosing the box was made by Col- 
onel O'Donnell in 1723. It was presented 
by the late Sir Richard O'Donnell to the 
Royal Irish Academy, where it now is. 

Either in the monastery or in some 
building near it were compiled, between 
1632 and 1636, the famous Annals of 
Donegal, better known under the title of 
the Annals of the Four Masters— Michael 
and Cucogry O'Clery, Fearfeasa O'Mul- 
conry, and Cucogry O'Duigenan. The ob- 
ject of this compilation was to detail the 
history of Ireland up to the time in which 
they lived, including all local events, such 
as the foundation and destruction of 
churches and castles, the deaths of re- 
55 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

markable persons, the inaugurations of 
kings, the battles of chiefs, the contests 
of clans, etc. A book consisting of eleven 
hundred quarto pages, beginning with the 
year 2242 B.C., and ending with the year 
1616 A.D., thus covering the immense space 
of nearly four thousand years of a na- 
tion's history, must be dry and meagre of 
details in some, if not in all, parts of it. 
And although the learned compilers had at 
their disposal or within their reach an im- 
mense mass of historic details, still the cir- 
cumstances under which they wrote were so 
unfavorable that they appear to have exer- 
cised a sound discretion and one consistent 
with the economy of time and of their re- 
sources when they left the details of the 
very early history of Ireland in the safe- 
keeping of such ancient original records as 
had from remote ages preserved them, and 
collected as much as they could make room 
for of the events of more modern times, par- 
ticularly those eventful days in which they 
themselves lived. This interesting record, 
which was originally written in native 
Irish, has in later times been translated 
by Mr. Eugene O'Curry, who has given 
to the world of general literature a very 
able translation of this monumental work. 



BALLYSHANNON TO SLIGO 

WITH a fresh horse we started for Bally- 
shannon, some fifteen miles ahead of us. 
The surrounding country was interesting 
and appeared to be prosperous, contain- 
ing many fine seats, the great feature of 
which was their magnificent timber. Bally- 
shannon seems a busy town, with two thou- 
sand five hundred inhabitants. Its castle, 
of which scarcely any traces remain, be- 
longs to the O'Donnells and was the scene 
of a disastrous defeat of the English under 
Sir Con vers Clifford in 1597. The castle 
was besieged with vigor for three days and 
an attempt made to sap the walls, but the 
garrison having made a desperate sally, 
the English retreated in haste, and, pur- 
sued by Hugh Roe O'Donnell, they lost a 
great portion of their force in an unsuc- 
cessful attempt to cross the Erne. 

The two portions of the town, the lower 
one of which is called the Port, are con- 
nected by a bridge of twelve arches about 
57 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

four hundred yards above the celebrated 
falls, where an enormous body of water 
is precipitated over a cliff some thirty feet 
high and ten feet above high-water, with 
a noise that is perfectly deafening. This 
is the scene of the "salmon -leap." The 
salmon that come down the river in the 
autumn return again in the spring months, 
and this can only be accomplished by 
ascending the falls. Traps with funnel- 
shaped entrances are placed in different 
parts of the falls, in which the salmon are 
caught, and taken out for market as re- 
quired. Between the traps are intervals 
through which the fish can reach the top 
of the falls by leaping, and as at low water 
the spring is about sixteen feet, the scene 
is singularly interesting. Below the falls 
is the island of Inis-Saimer, on which are 
buildings connected with the fishery. The 
fishery is very valuable, and is owned by 
Messrs. Moore & Alexander. 

On the bridge is a tablet to William 
Allingham (1824- 1889), a native of Bal- 
lyshannon. I give Allingham's own de- 
scription of his home; it can hardly be 
surpassed in the English language for sim- 
ple, graceful, and yet direct diction. I also 
quote a few lines from a poem he wrote 
58 



BALLYSHANNON TO SLIGO 

before he sailed for America; they are not 
Miltonian in their style, but Milton could 
not have touched the spot as he did. 

" The little old town where I was born has a voice 
of its own,' low, solemn, persistent, humming through 
the air day and night, summer and winter. When- 
ever I think of that town I seem to hear the voice. 
The river which makes it rolls over rocky ledges 
into the tide. Before spreads a great ocean in 
sunshine or storm ; behind stretches a many-islanded 
lake. On the south runs a wavy line of blue moun- 
tains; and on the north, over green, rocky hills, 
rise peaks of a more distant range. The trees hide 
in glens, or cluster near the river ; gray rocks and 
boulders lie scattered about the windy pastures. 
The sky arches wide over all, giving room to multi- 
tudes of stars by night and long processions of 
clouds blown from the sea, but also, in the childish 
memory where these pictures live, to deeps of celestial 
blue in the endless days of summer. An odd, out- 
of-the-way little town ours, on the extreme western 
verge of Europe, our next neighbors, sunset way, 
being citizens of the great new republic which, 
indeed, to our imagination seemed little, if at all, 
farther off than England in the opposite direction." 

" Adieu to Bally shannon! where I was bred and 
born; 
Go where I may, I'll think of you, as sure as 

night and morn; 
The kindly spot, the friendly town, where every 

one is known, 
And not a face in all the place but partly seems 
my own. 

59 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

There's not a house or window, there's not a 

field or hill, 
But, east or west, in foreign lands, I'll recollect 

them still. 
I leave my warm heart with you, tho' my back 

I'm forced to turn, 
So adieu to Ballyshannon and the winding banks 

of Erne! 

"Farewell, Coolmore — Bundoran! and your sum- 
mer crowds that run 

From inland homes to see with joy th' Atlantic 
setting sun; 

To breathe the buoyant salted air, and sport 
among the waves; 

To gather shells on sandy beach and tempt the 
gloomy caves; 

To watch the flowing, ebbing tide, the boats, the 
crabs, the fish; 

Young men and maids to meet and smile, and 
form a tender wish; 

The sick and old in search of health, for all things 
have their turn — 

And I must quit my native shore and the wind- 
ing banks of Erne!" 

Near here are the ruins of Kilbarron 
Castle, an ancient fortress of the O'Clerys, 
a family renowned in their day for their 
skill in science, poetry, and history, of 
whom was Father Michael O'Clery, the 
leader of the illustrious quartet of the 
" Four Masters/' It stands on a pre- 
60 



BALLYSHANNON TO SLIGO 

cipitous rock at the very edge of the 
coast. 

In the vicinity of Ballyshannon can 
be seen Ballymacward Castle, which was 
built during the famine of 1739. This 
was the home of the "Colleen Bawn," 
famous in song and story, who was one 
of the Ff olliott girls, and eloped with Willy 
Reilly. 

Now we are on the road to Bundoran, 
and we had hardly cleared the skirts of 
Ballyshannon before it began to rain so 
hard that even had old Noah been with 
us he could not have bragged much about 
the Flood. It came in at our collars and 
went out at our boots. Our new driver 
could not be induced to say a single word 
except yes or no; he was neither a his- 
torian, a botanist, nor a geologist, and he 
took no interest whatever in ruins; but 
we forgave him for all these shortcomings, 
for he drove his horse steadily onward 
through the torrent with an unswerving 
perseverance that covered a multitude of 
sins. When we arrived at Bundoran's 
fashionable watering - place hotel, The 
Irish Highlands, the guests received us 
with shouts of laughter, in which we good- 
humoredly joined. No more weary pilgrims 
61 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

ever drew rein at inn in such a sorry 
plight. 

Our clothes were dried during the night, 
and with a new steed we started for Sligo. 
It was clear weather and we had a pleas- 
ant ride along the coast-line. The feature 
of the day was skirting the base of Ben- 
bulbin for about seven miles. This is a 
most peculiar mountain, almost eighteen 
hundred feet high. Its base starts in with 
patches of yellow and sage-green verdure, 
then turns to streams of broken rocks. 
From these, regular pillars of stone start 
like the pipes of an organ, which can be 
seen for fifty miles, these again being cov- 
ered by a flat crown of green growth. The 
whole looks like a vast temple in India. 
A large water-fall, consisting of three sep- 
arate cascades, cuts its side and adds 
greatly to its beauty and attractiveness. 

We passed through the village of Drum- 
clifT, situated on the bank of the river of 
the same name which here enters Drum- 
cliff Bay from Glencar Lake. A mon- 
astery was founded here by St. Columba, 
the site for which was given in 575, and 
it was made into a bishop's see, after- 
wards united to Elphin. This village 
was anciently called "Drumcliff of the 
62 



BALLYSHANNON TO SLIGO 

Crosses/' and of the remains of these the 
"Great Cross" is a fine example. It is 
thirteen feet high and three feet eight 
inches across the arms, which are con- 
nected by the usual circular segments. 
It is of hard sandstone and consists of 
three sections, the base, shaft, and top. 
It is highly sculptured, showing human 
figures, animals, and fine, interlaced scroll- 
work. There is also the stump of a round 
tower, about forty feet high, of rude ma- 
sonry of the earliest group. The door 
is square-headed, six feet from the ground, 
and the walls are three feet thick. 

Near Drumcliff was fought a great bat- 
tle in 561, arising out of a quarrel over 
the possession of a copy of a Latin Psalter 
made by St. Columba from one borrowed 
of St. Finnian, of Moville. St. Finnian 
claimed the copy, and the case was brought 
before Dermot, King of Meath, who de- 
cided, Brehon fashion, that as "to every 
cow belongs its calf, so to every book be- 
longs its copy/' a judgment from which 
St. Columba appealed to his tribe. The 
party of St. Columba was victorious, three 
thousand of the men of Meath being slain. 
St. Columba was advised by St. Molaise 
to go to Scotland and convert the pagans 
63 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

as penance for the blood he had shed, 
which he did, and founded a missionary 
establishment in Iona. 

Lord Palmerston took a great interest 
in this part of the country, laying out 
plantations in 1842 and building a har- 
bor, which we saw from the car. It cost 
him over £20,000. 

While riding along we noticed a tower 
on a distant hill, and said to the driver, 
"Is that a round tower?" "Yis, sur." 
"Are you sure it's round?" "Yis, sur, 
I am; it's square it is." 



SLIGO TO BALLINROBE 

WE finally reached Sligo; and Sligo is 
quite a place, both historically and com- 
mercially. It has a population of 10,274, 
and is an important seaport town in close 
neighborhood to scenery such as falls 
to the lot of very few business towns. It 
is remarkably well situated in the centre 
of a richly wooded plain, encircled on all 
sides, save that of the sea, by high moun- 
tains, the ascent of which commences 
within three to four miles of the town, 
while on one side of it is Lough Gill, al- 
most equal in beauty to any lake in Ire- 
land, and on the other a wide and shel- 
tered bay. Connection between the two 
is maintained by the broad river Gar- 
rogue, which issues from Lough Gill and 
empties itself, after a course of nearly 
three miles, into Sligo Bay. It is crossed 
by two bridges, joining the parish of St. 
John with that of Calry on the north bank. 
Steamers ply regularly between this town 
and Glasgow and Liverpool. 
65 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

Sligo attained some importance as early 
as 1245 as the residence of Maurice Fitz- 
Gerald, Earl of Kildare, who there found- 
ed a castle and monastery. The castle 
played an important part in the struggles 
of the English against the Irish chiefs 
in the thirteenth century and subsequent- 
ly, in which the rival O'Conors and O'Don- 
nells were mainly concerned. Sligo suf- 
fered in the massacres of 1641, when it 
was taken by Sir Frederick Hamilton 
and the abbey burned. The Parliament- 
ary troops, under Sir Charles Coote, took 
it in 1645 after a battle in which the Irish 
were defeated and the warlike Archbishop 
of Tuam, Malachy 0' Kelly, was killed. 
In the great abbey, which is now a fine 
ruin, is the grave of Patrick Beolan, who 
did not "give in," as they say in Ireland, 
till he had reached the age of one hun- 
dred and forty-four. 

While at Sligo we met the brother of 
Lieutenant Henn (owner of the Galatea, 
and who tried to lift the cup with her some 
years ago). This man is a local judge 
and a very pleasant and entertaining 
gentleman, reminding us greatly of his 
late brother, whose estate he inherited. 



BALLINROBE TO LEENANE 

OUR next points were Claremorris and Bal- 
linrobe. They were not interesting, so we 
took a car to Cong, a very ancient place 
lying on the neck of land which sepa- 
rates Lough Corrib from Lough Mask. 
St. Fechin, of Fore, founded a church 
here in 624, and it is at this place that 
Lord Ardilaun has his castle, a large build- 
ing on the shores of Lough Corrib, sur- 
rounded by an immense park, with fine 
timber, Italian sunken gardens, and a 
pheasantry. In the gardens, in luxuri- 
ant profusion, countless varieties of rare 
plants, gigantic palms, delicate ferns, 
are as much at home as in their na- 
tive tropics, carefully nurtured in a cli- 
mate tempered to their necessities, soft 
and balmy from the influence of the Gulf 
Stream. Lord Ardilaun has many other 
attractions besides these at Ashford Cas- 
tle — i. e., steam - yachts, watch - towers, 
conservatories, stables, a salmon - river, 
67 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

game-preserves, and large herds of red 
and fallow deer, not to mention the Au- 
gustinian monastery built by the king- 
monk Roderic O'Conor in the twelfth 
century. He was the last Irish king, 
and lived the concluding fifteen years 
of his life within these walls as a monk, 
in the strictest seclusion; he died in 1 198, 
aged eighty-two. 

The Cross of Cong, which was made 
for Tuam, was brought here, it is thought, 
by Roderic O'Conor. It measures two 
and a half feet high, one foot six and 
three-quarter inches across arms, and 
one and three-quarter inches thick. It 
is made of oak plated with copper, and 
covered with the most beautiful gold tra- 
cery of Celtic pattern. In the centre of 
the arms is a large crystal; thirteen of 
the original eighteen jewels remain, set 
along the edges of shaft and arms, while 
eleven of those which were set down the 
centre of arms and shaft and round the 
crystal are lost. It was found by the 
Rev. P. Prendergast early in the present 
century in a chest in the village, and after 
his death it was purchased by Professor 
MacCullagh for one hundred guineas, and 
presented to the Royal Irish Academy. 
68 



BALLINROBE TO LEENANE 

Loughs Mask and Corrib are connect- 
ed by an underground river, as the po- 
rous nature of the rock will not permit 
the water to flow on the surface. We went 
down thirty feet into the "pigeon-hole," 
which is near the castle, to see the flow 
of water through the ground. The ar- 
rangements for seeing this place might 
truly be called hospitality in a high form, 
as everything is shown and nothing ex- 
pected in return for the courtesy. The 
solicitude of the old gate-keeper for our 
welfare was particularly marked, for when 
we returned to the gate after a very 
peaceful inspection, he doffed his hat and 
exclaimed, "Glory be to God, yer hon- 
ors have returned safe and in good health, 
too, I see!" 

During the Irish famine an attempt 
was made to dig a canal connecting the 
lakes, so as to give the people something 
to do, and an enormous amount of money 
was sunk in the project. The rocky bed 
absorbed the water, however, as fast as 
it flowed in, and the enterprise proved 
an utter failure. Every visitor asks 
what it is when he sees it. It is called 
"The Great Blunder." 



LEENANE TO RECESS 

NEXT morning, with new car, horse, 
and driver, we put of! for Leenane, twenty- 
seven miles away. We drove along the 
banks of Lough Mask, with its groups 
of small, wooded islands, and left it to take 
the road along Lough Nafooey, a very 
picturesque drive. After some hours of 
driving, we put up at McKeown's Hotel 
in Leenane. "Mac" is a Pooh-Bah, a 
tall, strapping young Irishman, a "six- 
foot-twoer," with an intermittent laugh 
that takes most of the sting out of his ho- 
tel bills, and he holds the complimentary 
title of "The Major." He runs an up- 
to-date hotel, is postmaster, owns a store, 
has all the mail -posting contracts, rents 
salmon and trout rivers and lakes, ships 
salmon to London, and owns ten thou- 
sand acres of shooting - land stocked with 
grouse, hares, snipe, duck, and cock, which 
he lets to visitors, as well as seal shoot- 
ing on the bay. He also owns a sheep 
70 



LEENANE TO RECESS 

mountain, from which he serves mutton 
to his guests in all the ways that man- 
kind has ever known since sheep were 
first slaughtered for food. We had on 
succeeding days, as part of the menu, 
roast mutton (hot and cold), stewed lamb, 
boiled leg, roast saddle, minced lamb, 
mutton cutlets, broiled kidneys, lamb 
chops, Irish stew, suet - pudding, sweet- 
breads, French chops, sheep's-head, and 
mutton broth. We fancied we could de- 
tect wool growing on the palms of our 
hands when we left the hotel, and could 
have forgiven "Mac" if we could only 
have found it starting on the tops of our 
heads instead. At another hotel in a 
fishing centre we had an aquarium style 
of living, which in time became monot- 
onous: they served up in the course of 
time for our delectation, salmon boiled 
and salmon broiled, cold salmon, salmon 
steak, salmon croquettes, salmon cut- 
lets, and stewed salmon, intersticed with 
white trout, black trout, yellow trout, 
brown trout, sea trout, speckled trout, and 
gillaroo. But at Recess they combined 
such things with chops, duck, green pease, 
lobster, and Irish sole right out of the near- 
by sea. All hail, Recess! And long life 
7i 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

to Polly, the peach - cheeked waitress who 
served us so nimbly ! 

Next morning we crossed Killary Bay 
in a boat, and while doing so we noticed 
that the captain held his leg in a very 
constrained position. We asked him if 
it was stiff, or if he was troubled with 
rheumatism. "No; to tell your honor 
the truth, there's a hole in the boat, an' 
I'm jist kapin' me heel in it to save her 
from sinkin'." 

After landing we drove to Delphi to see 
its lake and woods; then on to Lough 
Dhu, a long sheet of water from the banks 
of which the mountains rise to a height 
of twenty-five hundred feet. Delphi is 
one of the loveliest spots in Connemara, 
but we can hardly go as far as the en- 
thusiastic Englishman who wrote: "It 
may be safely said that if Connemara 
contained no other beauty, Delphi alone 
would be worth the journey from Lon- 
don, for the sake of the mountain scenery." 
Delphi House formerly belonged to the 
Marquis of Sligo, and at one time he 
lived there. We returned by driving 
round the head of the bay, with a horse 
that would have retarded a funeral pro- 
cession. Within a mile of the hotel there 
72 



H 
S 

JO 

d 

o 
% 

CO 

r 

o 

o 
o£ 
d 

M 

S 
w 

CO 
H 

CO 

-3 

o 

Pd 

O 
O 

a 




LEENANE TO RECESS 

is a double echo, which we tested by loud 
whistling on our fingers. After crossing 
the bay, the echo came back to us with 
great strength, striking our side of the 
mountain again and thus making a sec- 
ond echo. 

On the morning before we left, I lay in 
bed half asleep, and, as the bedrooms 
in the west of Ireland rarely have any 
locks on their doors, our confidential 
"boots'' stole quietly into the room and, 
looking at me, soliloquized in a tender 
tone, suggestive of a tip if I should hear 
him: "Sure, his honor is slapin' loike 
a baby, an' 'twould be nothin' short of 
a crime to wake him up this wet morn- 
in' ; I haven't the heart to do it." And 
he walked out of the room with his eye 
on the future. 

The following day we "took in" the 
Killaries, as they are called. This is a 
long arm of the sea, surrounded by high, 
bold mountains, clothed with very green 
verdure to their tops. It is a wonder- 
ful fiord, which has scare e\y any parallel 
in the British Isles and much resembles 
the coast scenery in Norway. Capacious 
and fit for the largest ships, . it runs in- 
land to the very heart of the mountains 
73 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

for a distance of some nine miles. The 
mountain scenery on the north of the 
fiord is incomparably the finest, the enor- 
mous walls of Mweelrea, the " Giant of the 
West/' and Bengorm rising abruptly to 
the height of two thousand six hundred 
and eighty-eight feet and two thousand 
three hundred and three feet, while the ex- 
cessive stillness of the land-locked water, 
in which the shadows of the hills are 
clearly reflected, makes it difficult for one to 
believe that it is the actual ocean which he 
beholds. 

That night, after a drive of twelve miles, 
we reached Casson's Hotel in Letterfrack, 
where we asked for a fire in the dining- 
room, as it was cold when we arrived. 
The maid brought a burning scuttle of 
peat, the smoke from which did not sub- 
side during the entire dinner, but it looked 
comfortable, to see each other through it, 
reminding us of cheerful fires and warm 
nooks at home; the comparison could 
go no farther, however. We asked the 
maid for a wine-list, in order that we might 
try to overcome the effect of the smoke, 
and she responded, with great naivete, 
that she had no wine-list, but would bring 
us a sample from every bin in the cellar. 
74 



LEENANE TO RECESS 

In a few minutes, sure enough, she bounced 
into the room with her arms full of hot- 
ties, saying: "Take yer ch'ice, gin tie- 
men; there's nothin' foiner in all Con- 
nemara!" We took her at her word; she 
had not deceived us — the bottle we selected 
was a good claret. 

Next morning the landlady furnished 
us with the best animal we had on the 
trip. She was a stout, bay mare, and when 
her spirits had rallied after leaving a 
young colt of hers behind, she reeled off 
the miles like a machine. Our object in 
visiting this part of the country was to 
see Mitchell Henry's famous castle, Kyle- 
more, and the Twelve Pins, about which 
we had been hearing all our lives without 
ever having had an opportunity to visit 
them until now. 

Mr. Henry was a linen merchant, with 
houses in Belfast and Manchester; he 
made a fortune, purchased fourteen thou- 
sand acres of land in Connemara to give 
himself a political foothold, and in con- 
sequence became M. P. for Galway, which 
position he retained for six years. About 
forty years ago he began the construc- 
tion of Kylemore, selecting as a site 
a valley between very high mountains, 
75 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

with a lake and river in front of the spot 
where his castle would stand. He col- 
lected rare trees and planted the moun- 
tain-sides with them, as well as the valley 
round his buildings. In addition to the 
castle, he erected fine stables, a private 
chapel, sheltered gardens, and conserva- 
tories, and preserved the salmon and trout 
in the lake and river. The moist heat 
from the Gulf Stream was his main ally, 
and nowhere else in the world can more 
bursting vigor and splendid growth be 
seen than are exhibited by his trees, shrubs, 
and flowers; to see them is a veritable 
treat to those who are interested in such 
things. In the gardens nourish groups 
of tropical plants, palms, and rare ferns 
the year round; they need no protection 
in this mild climate. His roads have 
double fuchsia hedges twelve feet high, 
which, anywhere else than in Connemara, 
would be worth a fortune. They were 
in full bloom when we saw them. Mr. 
Henry is now a very old man and lives 
in London; and the sad part of it all is 
that he cannot enjoy the glories of his 
famous property, and it is for sale. Sic 
transit gloria mundi! 

After visiting the castle, church, gar- 
76 



LEENANE TO RECESS 

dens, and conservatories, we drove through 
the extensive, finely wooded demesne, 
passing vast banks of rhododendrons 
and hydrangeas in rare bloom, till we 
reached the county road and caught our 
first glimpse of the Twelve Pins, or Bens, 
as they are sometimes called. They were 
a disappointment; we had heard too much 
about them. The Twelve Pins is a group 
of high mountains having but little ver- 
dure; the highest, Benbaun, is two thou- 
sand four hundred feet above sea -level. 
The remarkable feature about them is that 
they are practically one long mountain with 
twelve peaks rising from it at regular in- 
tervals. Excepting this startling effect, they 
do not compare with Muckish, Dooish, or 
Errigal, the "peerless cone" of Donegal. 

The bay mare carried us in gallant style 
past the long, romantic - looking Lough 
Inagh down to Recess, where we put up 
at the best hotel we had found since we 
started. 



ACHILL ISLAND 

I AM writing this from memory and 
without notes, so I may be pardoned for 
having forgotten to introduce in its prop- 
er place our trip to Achill Island, one of 
the most interesting of our experiences. 
I shall start by saying that we crossed 
over to the island at its nearest point to 
the main-land, and, taking our seats on a 
"long" public car which stood in readi- 
ness, we were pulled by two immense 
horses the thirteen miles to the village of 
Dugort at a steady pace that never "slack- 
ed up" for the entire distance. It rained, 
but the car was plentifully supplied with 
tarpaulins, which were strapped round 
us in artistic style, and so we arrived at 
the Slievemore Hotel dry but benumb- 
ed. "Mine host" of the Slievemore, one 
Captain Sheridan, is perhaps the best- 
known Boniface in the west of Ireland. The 
iridescent splendor of his imagination, 
his contempt for detail, and his facility 
78 



ACHILL ISLAND 

in escaping when cornered, place him 
on a plinth so high that compared with 
him, Baron Munchausen would seem to 
be a practical monument of truth and 
accuracy; indeed, the Baron is his only 
rival in all the years that have gone to 
make up history. He greeted us with: 
"J saw you coming; knew by your looks 
you were the real thing, and wired for a 
ten-pound salmon/' 

We were stiff and cold after the wet 
drive, and asked for a nip of Irish whiskey. 
" Bad luck to it, anyhow, I haven't a drop 
in the house, but my team is hauling a 
cask of 'Power's Best' from the main- 
land. But I have 'Scotch/ boys, as is 
'Scotch'; not a headache in a hogshead 
of it!" So we had the substitute, and, 
upon our asking its age, he started in 
rather modestly at "five," and when we 
gave him a drink quickly raised it to " ten 
year old." Before the evening was over, 
he told us, in a confidential whisper, that 
the prime - minister had been his guest 
some time before and had pronounced it 
"twenty," so he did not know how old 
it really was — we must be the judges. 
He had a collection of stuffed birds and 
horns, and upon being asked what he 
79 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

would take for a pair of ram's horns, he 
exclaimed: "'Tis simply priceless they 
are! 'Twould cost you a thousand pounds 
to fit out an expedition to get them, and 
besides you would have to get permission 
from the Grand Llama of Thibet, for 'tis 
only in his dominions that these rare ani- 
mals are found; but still, I have too many 
horns, and I'll let you have the pair for 
forty guineas, packed up and ready for 
the steamer." 

He admitted that he was a first cousin 
of Phil Sheridan's. "They try to make 
out that Phil wasn't an Irishman, that 
he was born half - way over, but I tell you 
the true facts are that he was born before 
he started," was the way he conclusively 
settled General Sheridan's nationality. 

Guests "move on" at the approach of 
rain, in Irish hotels, so our genial host 
would pass from room to room if it threat- 
ened rain, calling out to an imaginary 
guest, ' 'Twill be a lovely day to-mor- 
row." Pressed to divulge his sentiments 
on the landlord - and - tenant question, and 
not knowing how we stood, he said: "I'm 
for 'give and take'; the tenant to give 
what he thinks fair, and the landlord to 
take it or leave it." 

80 



ACHILL ISLAND 

He had a supreme contempt for rival 
attractions, and said that the Dunfanaghy 
puffins were corn-fed and the seals were 
chained to the bottom to attract visitors. 
He had a comic-opera, smuggler, weather 
predictor, and long - distance - sea - serpent 
man who turned up every morning and 
mingled with the guests. He dressed the 
part to perfection, a la Dick Dead eye, 
and would tell how many whales and 
seals he had seen in the bay at daybreak. 
As for the weather, with him it was al- 
ways assured; if it rained while he was 
talking, he would belittle it by saying, 
"Sure, 'tis but a little bit of a shower; 
'twon't last ten minutes"; then he would 
pilot a schooner over the bar and disap- 
pear. 

But, after all, our host Sheridan was 
a kindly, good-natured fellow and very 
accommodating; he had told his tales 
so often that he really believed them, and 
was not so much to blame as one would 
think at first sight. His wife was a most 
capable manager, and largely made up 
for his shortcomings in the fulfilment 
of promises. Cead Mille Failthe (a hun- 
dred thousand welcomes) was emblazon- 
ed on a large crescent over the door. 
6 81 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

The place was well supplied with pets — 
cats, dogs, and a tame crow making up 
the family. The house has four pairs 
of stairs leading from the hall vestibule; 
there is a high mountain close to its rear 
and another right in front of it, with the 
Atlantic to the west; so that it must be 
described as a picturesque establishment 
in every detail. The weather became fog- 
gy, and we were about to leave without 
trying to see anything, when the sun sud- 
denly broke through the clouds and we 
changed the programme by remaining. 

Achill Island is fifteen miles long by 
twelve miles wide; it is bounded by Black- 
sod Bay on the north and by Clew Bay on 
the south. There is a small grocery store 
on the west side of the island which is 
said to be the nearest saloon to America, 
and proud is the owner of this distinc- 
tion. The people lead a very peculiar 
life. The latitude is high, and conse- 
quently in the dead of winter the day is 
very short, and they cannot fish in the 
stormy waters surrounding the island. 
They save enough money in summer to 
carry them through the winter months, 
and amuse themselves during the long 
nights by dancing. Every community 

8>2 



ACHILL ISLAND 

has its fiddler, and it is his business to 
provide a house with a large room in which 
the dances can be held. Each family 
furnishes the supper in turn, and all " pay 
the fiddler/' One would suppose that 
whiskey would play the leading part in 
such entertainments; and up to the lat- 
ter part of the last century it did, but it 
is now entirely absent. Long experi- 
ence taught the participants that if peace- 
ful family parties were to be indulged in, 
the "mountain dew" must be an absentee; 
so they took to Guinness's stout, and the 
piles of "empties/' everywhere to be seen, 
show clearly that the Guinness shares are 
a valuable investment. This dancing 
is carried on in most of the northwestern 
counties, where the winter days are short. 
The "balls" end at about 3 A.M., and 
the dancers sleep till eleven the next morn- 
ing. 

The island contains the cathedral cliffs 
of Menawn, one thousand feet in height, 
hollowed by the long action of the waves 
through countless centuries, and having 
a striking resemblance to stupendous 
Gothic aisles. 

We started early in the morning for 
Achill Head, via Keem Bay, traveling 
&3 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

as usual on a car, driven by a boy. We 
drove through a unique fishing village, 
consisting of very small houses laid out 
in regular streets, the thatched roofs be- 
ing secured against the winter storms by 
ropes on which were ' hung large stones 
about the size of watermelons. These 
rows of stones swayed in the wind and 
produced a curious effect while in motion. 
The car stopped at the foot-hills, where 
the road changed into a path, and waited 
under a shed for our return in the even- 
ing. On alighting we were delighted 
to hear the sweet, familiar song of a pair 
of larks that soared up under the clear, 
blue sky so far above our heads that they 
seemed mere specks which we could see but 
indistinctly. It was many years since we 
had seen and heard the Irish lark in its 
native element, and we listened to the notes 
with keen, reminiscent pleasure. 

Here we hired two gillies to help us in 
climbing Achill Head, which is quite a 
high mountain. We climbed up a steep 
track for about three miles, and were con- 
gratulating ourselves upon our progress, 
when, on rounding the hip of the hill, 
we discovered that we should have to de- 
scend again to sea-level at Keem Bay, 

8 4 



ACHILL ISLAND 

in order to commence the real ordeal. It 
was easy work going down, and we soon 
reached the bay. This is a beautiful 
spot, an indenture in the headland, with 
a firm, yellow strand at the head, and 
perpendicular, rocky bluffs on its sides. 
Three large boats were salmon - fishing, 
and from the many places where we rested 
on our long climb up the mountain we 
saw them tacking back and forth all day. 

Near the shore we visited the house and 
store of Captain Boycott, both in ruins. 
This is the gentleman who gave us a new 
word for our vocabulary. Notwithstanding 
his fate, he had many warm friends among 
the peasantry. 

We started climbing again by follow- 
ing the bed of a brawling stream, and 
adhered to it until it turned into a rivulet. 
Most Irish mountains are formed by a 
series of benches, and our plan was to 
climb briskly till we reached a bench and 
there make a recovery for the next as- 
sault. As we rose in the air we felt our 
clothing becoming burdensome, and we 
gave one article after another to the gil- 
lies, so that by the time we reached the 
top our wardrobes were quite elementary. 
It seemed to us that all the benches in 

85 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

Ireland were collected on that mountain; 
each one was to have been the last, but 
still there was another and yet another. 
We finally reached the summit and, bathed 
in perspiration, lay down on the heather, 
wrapping ourselves in rain - coats, and, 
telling the gillies to wake us in an hour, 
fell asleep. It would not have been much 
of a climb for a mountaineer, but for us, 
of full habit and totally untrained, it was 
exercise to the extreme limit of endur- 
ance. 

When we awoke we crawled on all- 
fours to the edge of the head and looked 
over, and we shall never forget the sight 
that greeted our eyes! Achill Head and 
Croaghaun Mountain, adjoining it, have 
the reputation of being the highest ma- 
rine cliffs in existence. They are poised 
above the Atlantic at an angle of sixty 
degrees, and the particular point on which 
we lay far overhung the ocean. Here 
lightning-splintered pinnacles shoot from 
the mass; savage, titanic rocks lie on the 
face of the two mountains in wild con- 
fusion, scarred and rent from top to bot- 
tom, and the blue waters surge and break 
at their base in restless confusion, throw- 
ing up the spray to great heights. Then 
86 



ACHILL ISLAND 

for a moment all is calm, only to begin 
over again. It was as if the grandest 
Alpine scenery had the Atlantic breaking 
on its lower levels, and yet it retained 
the charm of the finest verdure. Between 
the crevices grew blooming heather, lux- 
uriant ferns, wild flowers, and arbutus 
in great profusion, while flocks of wild 
gulls circled gracefully through the air 
in quest of food, the whole being envel- 
oped in the warm, moist air of the Gulf 
Stream, rising from the face of the ocean 
and suffusing the cliff upon which we 
rested, giving it practically the tempera- 
ture of a hot-house. It was always a strug- 
gle between the mist and the sun; each 
alternately gained the mastery, and it 
was this weird kaleidoscope that held us 
spellbound and presented wonderland in 
a new guise. The Croaghaun Mountain, 
two thousand two hundred and nineteen 
feet in height, lay right beside us, joined 
to Achill Head by a rocky bridge. Its 
grand and peculiar feature is that at 
the very highest point it would seem as 
if the rest of the mountain had been sud- 
denly cut away, leaving a vast and tre- 
mendous precipice descending to the water 
nearly one thousand nine hundred and 
87 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

fifty feet. Deep fissures and rocky fur- 
rows have been worn by the torrents 
which pour down after heavy rains, and 
the bottom, where it shelves slightly, 
is strewn with bowlders and masses of 
shattered rock, forming natural bulwarks 
against the advancing tide. From where 
we stood, the view seaward was, of course, 
boundless, the nearest land being Amer- 
ica. It is doubtful if such another pan- 
orama is unfolded from any other height 
in the British Isles. Far out is the Black 
Rock, on which is a light - house two hun- 
dred and sixty-eight feet high, and to 
the northward are North and South In- 
ishkea and Duvillaun. The Mullet pen- 
insula, Erris, and the ever -varying out- 
lines of Blacksod Bay lie spread out like 
a map, and beyond Slievemore is a net- 
work of island and inlet, above which 
the splendid range of the Ballycroy Hills 
forms a background. In the distance is 
Nephin; far to the south rises the rugged 
head of Croagh Patrick and the moun- 
tains round Clew Bay; farther off are 
the summits of the Twelve Pins; Achill 
Beg lies immediately below; beyond it, 
Clare Island, and farther south Inish- 
turk, Inishbofin, and Inishshark bound 
88 



ACHILL ISLAND 

the horizon. Off the Mullet are numer- 
ous islands, of which the principal are 
Inishkeeragh and Inishglora, where, ac- 
cording to some, the dead are subject to 
such extraordinary and preserving in- 
fluences that their nails and hair grow 
as in life, "so that their descendants to 
the tenth generation can come and with 
pious care pare the one and clip the 
other. " The eagle still haunts these 
cliffs, and the wild goat feeds almost 
secure in his last haunts on these isl- 
ands. 

It was growing late, and, as we had five 
miles of walking before us, we retraced 
our steps down the mountain to Keem 
Bay. The trials of that descent have 
not been written in sand — they will never 
be forgotten. In our exhausted condi- 
tion we reeled and staggered from hum- 
mock to hummock, floundered through the 
soggy bog like a pair of stranded seals, 
sat down in the heather for a few gasps 
of breath when we could go on no longer. 
We guyed each other, guyed the Emerald 
Isle and its people; we sneered at the story 
of George's hatchet, and concluded that, 
after all, King Edward's job was not what 
it was cracked up to be — anything to 

8 9 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

divert our minds from the dreadful pres- 
ent. If we could have put Achill Island 
and all its scenery out of commission for- 
ever, we would gladly have done it. But 
time and the hour run through the rough- 
est day, and so we got to the bottom. At 
the beach we saw a cowherd coming tow- 
ards us with numerous cans, and, sup- 
posing these to be full, we pounced upon 
him for a drink of milk. Luck was against 
us again — his cans were empty, and he 
told us he had to walk a mile or more to 
where his cows were grazing before he 
could fill them. We braced ourselves for 
the final walk round the mountain, and 
as it was a fair road we had little dif- 
ficulty in reaching the shed where we 
had left the car in the early morning. The 
driver was watching for us, and we gladly 
swung ourselves up on the seats; and 
no pair of Irish kings ever enjoyed rid- 
ing in royal state more than we did. 
We stopped a few minutes at a lake by 
the wayside to see some of the hotel 
guests catching a basket of fine trout, 
which were afterwards served for a late 
supper. 

We awoke next morning stiff and sore, 
but a breezy chat with our genial host 
90 



ACHILL ISLAND 

soon put us on good terms with ourselves 
and everything about us. We left Achill 
Island in the afternoon, deeply regret- 
ting that we had not more time to devote 
to its wonders. 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

NOW back to Recess, which we left so 
abruptly. In the evening we went for 
a circular drive to Ballynahinch, with 
its river, lakes, and islands — up the river 
on one side, crossing it on a bridge, and 
down again by the base of the Twelve 
Pins, which you can't get away from 
in this country. We saw Ballynahinch 
Castle, close to the road on the edge of 
the lake. It belongs to the celebrated 
Martins, whose fortunes have been graph- 
ically described by Charles Lever in his 
popular novel, The Martins of Cro Martin. 
They owned two hundred thousand 
acres of land, and Colonel Martin is said 
to have endeavored to put the Prince 
Regent of that day out of conceit with 
the famous Long Walk at Windsor by say- 
ing that the avenue which led to his hall 
door was thirty miles long. The pleas- 
antry was true, for he owned the forty 
miles of road from Galway to his own door. 
92 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

Thackeray was a great admirer of Irish 
scenery and wrote profusely about it. 
These "Pins" were his particular hobby, 
and he never tired of them. In one book 
he writes: "I won't attempt to pile up 
big words in place of those wild moun- 
tains over which the clouds as they passed, 
or the sunshine as it went and came, cast 
every variety of tint, light, and shadow. 
All one can do is to lay down the pen and 
ruminate, and cry 'Beautiful'/ once more/' 

Bravo, William! but you ought to have 
peered over Achill, or have gone in a boat 
to see the birds at Horn Head; then we 
should have heard from you on a really 
great theme. 

As we were returning to the hotel, a 
white automobile approached us at high 
speed, and we could not but admire the 
dexterous way in which our driver got 
out of difficulty; for the horse had be- 
come panic-stricken and was about to 
plunge down the embankment along which 
we were driving. He jumped from his 
seat, whipped off his coat, and wrapped 
it round the horse's head. The animal 
was so much surprised at the novelty of 
the proceeding and the sudden loss of his 
sight that he forgot all about the "white 
93 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

ghost" till it had safely passed us. The 
chauffeur shouted back, "Great work; 
that's a new patent!" 

At Recess we had the pleasure of meet- 
ing Mr. W. J. D. Walker, Inspector and 
Organizer of Industries for the Congested 
Districts Board. We had a long and in- 
teresting reminiscent chat with him re- 
garding other days in Ireland; he is an 
enthusiast on the subject of helping the 
poor there to help themselves. The Board 
has employed experts to teach these peo- 
ple the best way to fish, build boats, 
breed cattle, till and improve the soil, 
make lace, weave cloth, manufacture 
baskets, and do many things of which 
they have at present but little, if any, 
knowledge; in fact, they are helped in 
every possible way by the British gov- 
ernment. 

Galway was near by, and an agree- 
ment was made to join Mr. Walker on 
one of his tours of inspection to the Aran 
Islands. So to Galway we went, where 
we received our first mail since leaving 
America. After having ascertained that 
the Seaboard Bank's doors were still open, 
glanced at the price of "U. S. Fours/' 
and noted the growing strength of the 
94 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

"Hackensack Meadows/' we set out to 
see the town. 

Galway is situated on gently rising 
ground, on the north side and near the 
head of the bay. The greater portion 
of the town is built upon a tongue of land 
bounded on the east by Lough Athalia, 
an arm of the sea, and on the west by the 
river which forms the outlet of Lough 
Corrib. The other and smaller part is 
on the opposite bank of the river and in 
the district known as lar - Connaught, 
the connection being maintained by one 
wooden and two stone bridges. The West 
Bridge is a very ancient structure of the 
date of 1342, and formerly possessed two 
tower gateways at the west and centre; 
these, however, have long since disap- 
peared. The Upper Bridge, leading from 
the court-house, was erected in 181 8. 

Under various names a town has been 
established here from the very earliest 
times, and Ptolemy mentions a city called 
Magnata, or Nagnata, which is gener- 
ally considered to be identical with Gal- 
way. This last name is derived, accord- 
ing to some, from a legend to the effect 
that a woman named Galva was drowned 
in the river hard by; by others, from 
95 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

the Gallaeci of Spain, with whom the 
town carried on an extensive trade; and 
by others, again, from the Gaels, or for- 
eign merchants, by whom it was occupied. 
Nothing is definitely known of Galway 
until 1 124, when, according to the "Four 
Masters/' a fort was erected there by the 
Connaught men. This was thrice de- 
molished by the Munster men, and as 
often rebuilt. In 1226, Richard de Burgo 
was granted the country of Connaught, 
and, having crushed the O'Connors, es- 
tablished his power in the West. He 
took Galway in 1232, enlarged the castle, 
and made it his residence. From this 
time Galway became a flourishing Eng- 
lish colony. Among the new settlers 
was a number of families whose descend- 
ants are known to this day under the gen- 
eral appellation of "the Tribes of Gal- 
way/' an expression first invented by 
Cromwell's forces as a term of reproach 
against the natives of the town for their 
singular friendship and attachment to 
one another during the time of their 
unparalleled troubles and persecutions, 
but which the latter afterwards adopted 
as an honorable mark of distinction be- 
tween themselves and their cruel oppress- 

96 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

ors. There were thirteen of these so- 
called tribes, the descendants of some of 
which, as Blake, Lynch, Bodkin, Browne, 
Joyce, Kirwan, Morris, Skerrett, D'Arcy, 
Ffrench, Martin, may still be found 
among its citizens, who in those days 
carefully guarded themselves from any 
intercourse with the native Irish. In 
one of the by-laws, of date of 1 51 8, it is 
enacted "that no man of this towne shall 
oste or receive into their housses at Christe- 
mas, Easter, nor no feaste elles, any of 
the Burkes, MacWilliams, the Kellies, 
nor no cepte elles, withoute license of the 
mayor and councill, on payn to forfeit 
5Z., that neither 0' nor Mac shalle strutte 
ne swaggere thro' the streetes of Gall- 
way." 

The following singular inscription was 
formerly to be seen over the west gate: 

" From the fury of the 0' Flaherties 
Good Lord deliver us." 

Owing to its excellent situation, Gal way 
enjoyed for centuries the monopoly of 
the trade with Spain, whence it received 
large quantities of wine, salt, etc., which 
caused so much personal intercourse that 
the town became impressed to a cer- 
7 97 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

tain degree with Spanish features, both 
in the architecture of the streets and in 
the dress and manners of the popula- 
tion; though it has been, nevertheless, 
the habit of former writers to ascribe too 
much to the supposed Spanish origin of 
the town, overlooking the fact that it was 
inhabited by an essentially Anglo-Nor- 
man colony. 

The first charter of incorporation was 
granted by Richard II., and confirmed in 
successive reigns down to that of Charles 
II. That of Richard III. excluded Mc- 
William Burke and his heirs from all rule 
and power in Gal way; and the charter 
of Elizabeth made the mayor Admiral 
of Galway and the bay, including the 
Aran Islands. Galway reached its high- 
est point of opulence at the commence- 
ment of the Irish rebellion of 1 641, dur- 
ing which period it was remarkable for 
its loyalty to the king. It was surren- 
dered to Ludlow in 1652, having suffered 
a siege and such barbarous treatment 
at the hands of the Parliamentary army 
that at the Restoration the town was al- 
most wholly decayed. From a map made 
in 1 651 by the Marquis of Clanricarde 
to ascertain the extent and value of the 

98 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

town, it appears that Galway was then 
entirely surrounded by walls, defended 
by fourteen towers, and entered by as 
many gates. 

On July 19, 1 69 1, a week after the bat- 
tle of Aughrim, Ginkell with fourteen 
thousand men laid siege to it. Two days 
later the town surrendered, the garrison 
being permitted to evacuate it with a safe- 
conduct to Limerick and a pardon to the 
inhabitants. 

Since the middle of the last century, 
the fortifications have gone fast to de- 
cay, and now nothing remains but a frag- 
ment near the quay and a massive arch- 
way leading to Spanish Place. There 
is also a square bastion of great thick- 
ness in Francis Street, and a portion of 
wall with a round-headed, blocked arch. 
Within the last century the town has 
so much increased as to cover more than 
double the space formerly occupied with- 
in the walls. Some of the houses are 
built Spanish fashion, with a small court 
in the centre and an arched gateway 
leading into the street. The most strik- 
ing specimen of domestic architecture is 
Lynch's Mansion, a large, square build- 
ing at the corner of Shop and Abbeygate 
99 

LflfC> 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

streets, having square - headed doorways 
and windows, with richly decorated mould- 
ings and drip -stones. There is also a 
portion of the cornice or projecting bal- 
ustrade at the top of the house, the hori- 
zontal supporting pillars being termi- 
nated with grotesque heads. On the street 
face are richly ornamented medallions 
bearing the arms of the Lynches, with 
their crest, a lynx. This castle has more 
gargoyles and coats-of-arms carved upon 
it than ever Mr. Carnegie can hope to 
cut on the battlements of Skiebo. I 
was going to say, the Lynches had carv- 
ings "to burn/' but, considering the in- 
combustible nature of these ornamen- 
tations, the phrase would perhaps be 
inappropriate. The family of Lynch, one 
of the most celebrated in Galway annals, 
is said to have originally come from Linz, 
in Austria, of which town one of them 
was governor during a siege. As a re- 
ward for his services, he received permis- 
sion to take a lynx as a crest. The fam- 
ily came to Ireland in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, and flourished there till the middle 
of the seventeenth. In 1484 Pierce Lynch 
was made first mayor under the new char- 
ter of Richard III., while his son Stephen 
100 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

was appointed first warden by Innocent 
VIII., and, during a period of a hundred 
and sixty -nine years, eighty -four mem- 
bers of this family were mayors; alto- 
gether the Lynches were great people 
in Galway. In Market Street, at the back 
of St. Nicholas's Church, is the "Lynch 
Stone/' bearing the following inscription : 

" This memorial of the stern and unbending 
justice of the chief magistrate of this city, James 
Lynch Fitzstephen, elected mayor A.D. 1493, who 
condemned and executed his own guilty son, Walter, 
on this spot, has been restored to its ancient site." 

Below this is a stone with a skull and 
cross-bones, and this inscription: 

" 1524 

Remember Deathe Vaniti of Vaniti and al is but 

Vaniti." 

James Lynch Fitzstephen had been one 
of the most successful of the citizens in 
promoting commerce with Spain, which 
he had himself personally visited, hav- 
ing been received with every mark of hos- 
pitality. To make some return for all 
this kindness, he proposed and obtained 
permission from his Spanish host to take 
101 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

his only son back with him to Ireland. 
The mayor had also an only son, unfor- 
tunately addicted to evil company, hut 
who, he hoped, was likely to reform, from 
the circumstance of his being attached 
to a Galway lady of good family. And 
so it might have proved had he not jeal- 
ously fancied that the lady looked too 
graciously upon the Spaniard. Roused 
to madness, he watched the latter out of 
the house, stabbed him, and then, stung 
with remorse, gave himself up to justice, 
to his father's unutterable dismay. Not- 
withstanding the entreaties of the town 
folk, with whom the youth was a fa- 
vorite, the stern parent passed sentence of 
death, and actually hanged him from the 
window with his own hand. 

The Joyces, however, ran the Lynches 
a close race in Connemara, a part of which 
is called "Joyce's country/' In Abbey- 
gate Street is the Joyces' mansion, now in 
ruins. On a house in the adjoining street 
are the arms of Galway. The complete 
ruins of Stubber's Castle are in High 
Street, the entrance to it being through a 
shop, the only feature of which worth no- 
ticing is a carved chimney-piece bearing 
the arms of Blake and Brown (1619). In 
102 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

Market Street are the remains of the 
Burkes' mansion. 

The Bay of Galway consists of a long 
arm of the sea, protected at the entrance 
by the lofty cliffs of the islands of Aran, 
which in clear weather are visible at a 
distance of twenty -nine miles, and on 
the north and south by the coasts of Gal- 
way and Clare, respectively. A legend 
in the annals of Ireland states that it was 
once a fresh-water lake known as Lough 
Lurgan, one of the three principal lakes 
in Ireland, and was converted into a bay 
by the Atlantic breaking over and unit- 
ing with the water therein. 

A large number of the population is 
employed in the salmon and herring fish- 
ery, and the Claddagh is their home. This 
is an extraordinary assemblage of low, 
thatched cottages, built with total dis- 
regard to system, and numbered indis- 
criminately. Hardiman wrote of them 
as follows: "The colony from time im- 
memorial has been ruled by one of their 
own body, periodically elected, who is dig- 
nified with the title of mayor, regulates 
the community according to their own 
peculiar laws and customs, and settles 
all their fishery disputes. His decisions 
103 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

are so decisive and so much respected 
that the parties are seldom known to carry 
their differences before a legal tribunal 
or to trouble the civil magistrates/' The 
title and office are now quite obsolete. 
At one time they never allowed strangers 
to reside within their precincts, and al- 
ways intermarried among themselves, but 
now strangers settle among them. They 
are a very moral and religious people; 
they would not go to sea or away from 
home on any Sunday or holiday. The 
dress of the women of the Claddagh was 
formerly very peculiar, and imparted a 
singular foreign aspect to the Gal way 
streets and quays. It consisted of a blue 
mantle, red body-gown and petticoat, a 
handkerchief bound round the head, and 
legs and feet au naturel; but that dress 
is rarely seen now. The Claddagh ring 
— two hands holding a heart — becomes 
an heirloom in a family, and is handed 
down from mother to daughter. 

One of the sights of the town is to see 
the salmon waiting to go up the Galway 
River to spawn. We rose one morning 
quite early to see this, when the fish would 
not be disturbed, and we watched them from 
the bridge for an hour. It was worth the 
104 



RECESS TO GALWAY 

effort ; we saw them packed in schools, quiv- 
ering and jostling one another in their eager- 
ness to get up to the spawning-grounds. 

At our hotel we found an interesting 
character who served in the capacity of 
waiter. When questioned on the sub- 
ject of his past life, he said that he had 
come from Hamburg when twenty years 
old. He spoke German broken into Eng- 
lish with a strong Connemara brogue; 
and if Weber and Fields could only have 
heard him describe the items on a carte de 
jour, he would not be left long in Galway, 
but would find his opportunity in their 
dramatic temple on Broadway. 



ARAN ISLANDS 

THE Aran Isles lie out in the Atlantic, 
some twenty-nine miles from shore, being 
visited by a small steamer twice a week. 
We took passage on the Duras with Mr. 
Walker one morning soon after our ar- 
rival. All kinds of people and a great 
variety of cargo were on board. We stood 
out to sea steadily, and in a few hours 
reached what is known as the South Island. 
Here we dropped anchor about five hun- 
dred yards from shore and commenced 
unloading our cargo into the sea, to be 
taken care of by a great crowd of curraghs 
which swarmed about the ship. (In ex- 
planation it may be stated that the cur- 
ragh is a great institution : it is a lightly 
framed, skeleton boat covered with raw 
cowhide or canvas and thoroughly tarred, 
in which the skilled native can go any- 
where in all weathers. It is universally 
used on the coast from Donegal to Con- 
nemara.) Boards were tossed into the 
1 06 



ARAN ISLANDS 

sea, which were quickly gathered together 
by the curragh-men, bound with ropes, 
and towed ashore. We had a drove of 
pigs on board, and their feet were tied 
together with ropes, the four in a bunch, 
and the animals piled up in the curraghs 
till the boats would hold no more; then 
they were taken near the shore, liberated, 
and allowed to swim to land themselves. 
Their squealing and grunting was like 
an untrained Wagnerian band. There 
was a cow on board, and she was pushed 
from the gangway by main strength, 
plunging headlong into the waves; there 
was a short pause, when she reappeared, 
swam ashore, shook herself, and uncon- 
cernedly began eating grass, none the 
worse for her bath. Mr. Walker took a 
snap-shot of her, reaching land. (We 
are also indebted to this fine photographer 
for the many excellent views he took for 
us in this locality and on the mainland.) 
Then there were all sorts of other things 
piled into the curraghs, and, lastly, we 
too managed to get into one and were 
rowed ashore. 

Mr. Walker then took us to a lace-mak- 
ing school which his Board had estab- 
lished on the island, and we saw the young 
107 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

girls making fine laces in a neat build- 
ing that had at one time been a church. 
The instructress had been on the island 
for more than a year, and Mr. Walker at 
once gave her a much-needed vacation. 

Standing on the shore, I asked a man, 
" Are there many lobsters here?" "Sure, 
the shores is red wid 'em, yer honor, in 
the height of the saison!" was his ready 
reply. 

We again got into a curragh, boarded 
the steamer, and were under way in a trice 
for Aranmore, the largest island of the 
group, where we landed an hour later at 
a fine pier built by the Congested Dis- 
tricts Board. The village is called Kil- 
ronan, and the inhabitants live by fish- 
ing. They are a simple and peculiar 
people, descended from the Firbolgs, re- 
taining some parts of the dress and many 
of the customs of that race. Their foot- 
wear consists of a coarse stocking, over 
which they wear a tight -fitting slipper 
of raw cowhide with the hair on it, called 
a "pampootie." This is a special shoe 
for use on the smooth and slippery rocks 
of these islands. They also wear a snug, 
homespun flannel jacket and short " pants," 
the whole making an exceedingly pictur- 
108 



o 

o 

a 

> 



H. 

■< a 
c > 
? O 

!► 

5 JO 
!> 

2 

s> 






ARAN ISLANDS 

esque and effective outfit for their work. 
They have no pockets for handkerchiefs, 
cigars, eye-glasses, gloves, or even small 
change, but they seem to get on very well 
without them. 

There is a cable to the island, and we 
had wired to Mrs. O'Brien's cottage for 
a dinner, there being no hotel. This was 
ready on our arrival, and, having finished 
it, we took the only car on the island 
and drove out to Dun (or Fort) Aengus, 
described by Dr. Petrie as "the most 
magnificent barbaric monument now ex- 
tant in Europe/' Its gigantic propor- 
tions, isolated position, and the wild scen- 
ery by which it is surrounded render the 
trouble of the journey to see it well worth 
while. It is built on the very edge of sheer 
cliffs, two hundred and fifty to three hun- 
dred feet in height, forming the south 
and east sides. In form it is of horse- 
shoe shape, although some antiquarians 
incline to the belief that it was originally 
oval, and that it acquired its present form 
from the falling of the precipices. It con- 
sists of three enclosures and the remains 
of a fourth. The wall which surrounds 
the innermost is eighteen feet high and 
twelve feet nine inches thick; it is in three 
109 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

sections, the inner one seven feet high, and, 
like the others, has the centre wall lower 
than the faces. This enclosure meas- 
ures one hundred and fifty feet from north 
to south, and one hundred and forty feet 
from east to west. The doorway is four 
feet eight inches high and three feet 
five inches wide, very slightly inclining, 
and the lintel is five feet ten inches long. 
In the northwest side is a passage lead- 
ing into the body of the wall. The sec- 
ond rampart, which is not concentric, 
encloses a space about four hundred feet 
by three hundred. Outside the second 
wall is the usual accompaniment of a very 
large "entanglement/' thirty feet wide, 
formed of sharp stones placed on end and 
sunk in the ground to hinder the approach 
of the enemy for an assault on the fort 
and make them an easy target for the 
bowmen to shoot at. So effective was 
this entanglement that we experienced 
considerable difficulty in getting through 
it, and when we did accomplish that feat 
we felt fully qualified to appreciate the 
intrepidity of an attacking party who 
would brave such an obstruction to their 
progress when storming the fort. In- 
side these stones, to the west, is a small 
no 



ARAN ISLANDS 

enclosure, the wall of which is seven feet 
nine inches high and six feet thick. Out- 
side of it all is a rampart, now nearly de- 
stroyed, enclosing a space of eleven acres. 
These walls terminate at both ends on 
the south cliffs. About the first century 
of the Christian era, three brothers, Aen- 
gus, Conchobar, and Mil, came from Scot- 
land to Aran, and their names are still 
preserved in connection with buildings 
on the island, the ancient fort just de- 
scribed being called Dun Aengus; the 
great fort of the middle island, superior 
in strength and preservation to the former, 
bearing the name of Dun Connor, or Con- 
chovar, and the name of Mil being asso- 
ciated with the low strand of Port Mur- 
vey, formerly known as Muirveagh Mil, 
or the Sea-plain of Mil. 

The surface of the ground surround- 
ing Dun Aengus is most remarkable. 
It is a level sheet of blue limestone ex- 
tending for many miles in every direc- 
tion. This cracked, when cooling, into 
rectangular forms, and in these cracks 
grow large ferns, the only vegetation to 
be seen. The mass of stone retains the 
sun's heat during the night, and conse- 
quently these ferns are most luxuriant, 
in 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

It would perhaps prove monotonous to 
describe in detail all the churches, forts, 
beehive cells, and monastic ruins, in many 
cases constructed in cyclopean masonry, 
with which these islands are literally cov- 
ered; for it must be remembered that Ire- 
land in the early ages was the university 
of Europe, the chief resort of the literati, 
where scholars came to learn and to teach 
one another all that was then known, 
and their numbers were so great that many 
buildings were required for their accom- 
modation. The wonder of it all is why 
these isolated islands should have been 
selected as the seat of learning, when so 
many other more convenient sites could 
have been chosen. The men who de- 
cided the matter seem to have thought 
that islands so far removed from the main- 
land would offer seclusion and better pro- 
tection from the various wars that had 
drenched Ireland in blood for so many 
centuries. I shall, therefore, content my- 
self with what is above stated regarding 
Dun Aengus, the largest and most im- 
portant structure on the islands. 

Passing over the tradition of Lough 
Lurgan, the earliest reference to the pre- 
Christian history of the Aran Islands is 
112 



ARAN ISLANDS 

to be found in the accounts of the battle 
of Muireadh, in which the Firbolgs, hav- 
ing been defeated by the Danann, were 
driven for refuge into Aran and other 
islands on the Irish coast, as well as into 
the western islands of Scotland. Chris- 
tianity was introduced in the fifth cen- 
tury by St. Enda, Eaney, or Endeus, who 
obtained a grant of the islands from Aen- 
gus, the Christian king of Munster, and 
founded ten religious establishments. 
Aranmore speedily obtained a world-wide 
renown for learning, piety, and asceticism, 
and "many hundreds of holy men from 
other parts of Ireland and foreign coun- 
tries constantly resorted to it to study 
the sacred scriptures and to learn and 
practise the rigid austerities of a hermit's 
life"; in consequence of which the island 
was distinguished by the name of "Ara- 
Naoimh," or Ara of the Saints. 

A century ago a curious custom prevailed 
in these islands. When a body was being 
carried to the grave, a convenient spot 
was selected at which to rest the pall-bear- 
ers; here the funeral procession came to 
a halt, generally about one hundred yards 
from the road. This spot was afterwards 
used as a site for a monument, erect- 
8 113 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

ed by husband, wife, or family, as the 
case might be, which for the most part 
took the place of a monument in the 
graveyard. When the relatives possessed 
means these memorials became quite im- 
posing, bearing carved statuary and hav- 
ing a short history of the dead inscribed 
on them, winding up with a formula in- 
voking a blessing on the souls of the de- 
parted. We left the car to inspect a long 
row of these stones fronting on the main 
road from Kilronan to Dun Aengus. The 
quaint things said in praise of the dead 
were quite interesting. 

Many of the natives on Thursday and 
Friday in Holy Week still make a pil- 
grimage round Aranmore, a distance of 
twenty miles, performing religious ex- 
ercises at each church in the circuit. 

The O'Briens were lords of Aran from 
an early period, but were driven out by 
the O'Flaherties of Iar Connaught, who 
in turn were driven out by the English 
in 1587. In 1651, the Marquis of Clan- 
ricarde fortified the Castle of Arkyn, the 
stronghold of the O'Briens, which held 
out against the Parliamentary army for 
more than a year after the surrender of 
Galway; but on the occupation of the 
114 



ARAN ISLANDS 

island, the soldiers of Cromwell demol- 
ished the great church of St. Enda to 
furnish materials for the repair of a strong 
fort. On the surrender of Galway in 1691 
Aran was garrisoned, and remained so 
for many years. Aran gives the title of 
Earl to the Gore family. 

At his home we met Father Farragher, 
a genial gentleman and the parish priest 
of Kilronan, and he gave us a great deal 
of interesting information concerning the 
history of and life on these islands, which 
are historic to a degree rarely met with, and 
with which he was thoroughly familiar. 
We returned late in the evening by steamer 
to Galway. 

When going to bed at the hotel, I sum- 
moned our comic "boots/' and directed 
him to call No. 41 at six o'clock. The 
"boots" wrote the call on his slate, and 
then sat down with a puzzled expression 
on his face. Noticing this, I inspected 
the slate and found that the inscription 
read: 'Call 46 at I." He excused his 
blunder by saying : " Shure, you Yankees 
do be givin us sich quare orders these 
days, we're prepared for almost anny- 

thin'." 

When leaving on the train the next 

115 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

morning and after we were seated in a 
crowded carriage, this same man put his 
head in through the open window and 
shouted: "You owe us another shillin'; 
the misthress forgot to charge the brace 
of 'nightcaps' ye had before bedtime/' 



LIMERICK 

THE important part of our trip being 
finished, Mr. Ross left for London to wit- 
ness the second attempt at the corona- 
tion of King Edward, while I went down 
to see Limerick and visit its annual horse- 
fair. Arrived at Limerick, I found the 
town full of the horsiest men I had ever 
seen anywhere. They had the knack of 
horsy dressing down to a fine point. 
Horseshoe pins were "the thing/' stuck 
in light-colored scarfs wound round their 
necks; their shanks were tightly rolled 
in leather, and above the knee they wore 
Santos-Dumont balloons in colors that 
would have made a rainbow look like a 
band of crape. Most of them had the con- 
ventional blade of grass in their mouths, 
a fashion started by Lord Palmerston 
fifty years ago and immortalized by John 
Leech in a celebrated Punch cartoon 
of the period. When looking at a horse, 
they tilted their hats far back into the 
117 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

nape of their necks, planted their feet wide 
apart, stuffed their hands into their pock- 
ets, and carried themselves with the gen- 
eral air of one who soliloquizes, "Well, 
I'm just looking for the photograph of a 
man who can get away with me on a hoss 
trade." 

Several streets in the horsy quarter 
of the town were given up to showing 
the horses, and there were examples of 
every breed, size, color, and weight you 
can think of, including hunters, carriage- 
horses, racers, saddle-horses, utility nags, 
circus - horses, and ponies. The rushing, 
rearing, plunging, galloping, trotting, and 
loping of the horses and the shouting of 
the rough-riders made a kaleidoscopic 
scene of dust, noise, and confusion which 
would have caused any one suffering 
from nervous prostration to choose some 
other place for a quiet afternoon. But 
I was there to see it through, and I 
went into the spirit of the occasion for 
"all I was worth/' trying my best to lend 
a helping hand in many of the trades. 
I was on the successful side twice, and 
had a glass of Limerick ale at a neigh- 
boring bar with the elated buyers. The 
dealing, "swapping," and buying were 
118 



LIMERICK 

carried on in true artistic style, while the 
rough - riding when showing the animals 
can only be seen in Ireland. It takes a 
buyer, a seller, and about three " cappers" 
on each side to close a trade; they almost 
pull the clothes off the back of the owner, 
and slap him violently on various parts 
of his body when " splitting differences." 
A buyer always bids about five pounds 
more than he will really give, stipulating 
that he shall have the five pounds returned 
to him after the purchase; this swells the 
apparent value of the nag and pleases 
the owner. He tells his neighbors that 
he sold his horse for the larger amount; 
but they know that he didn't get it, so 
there is no harm done. 

A dealer suddenly slapped me on the 
back and said, "Why don't yer buy a 
foine pair for yersilf and take 'em to the 
States wid ye?" 

"Oh, the horse is not 'in it' any longer 
in America; the automobile is king." 

" Ach ! the divil burn the oightymoobiles 
annyhow ; no dacent man will roide in wan 
av 'em if he can get a sate behind a harse," 
was his prompt reply. 

Young, well - matched carriage pairs 
brought one hundred and fifty guineas 
119 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

readily, during the afternoon. "Why 
don't you ship some of these teams to 
America? You could get three thousand 
dollars for them in New York/' was a 
question I put to another dealer. 

"I know it, sir, but the risk and ex- 
pense are too big; 'twould break me up 
in the long run/' And I suppose he was 
right. 

After saying so much about the horse- 
fair, perhaps it might be as well to say 
something about Limerick itself. Lim- 
erick has had quite a past, and there has 
been "a hot time in the old town" about 
as often as in any other city that can be 
pointed out. It is situated in a broad 
plain, watered by the Shannon, and back- 
ed up in the distance by the hills of 
Clare and Killaloe. The river, which 
soon becomes an estuary, rolls in a mag- 
nificent and broad stream through the 
heart of the town, and sends off a con- 
siderable branch called the Abbey River. 
This branch, rejoining the Shannon far- 
ther north, encloses what is known as 
the King's Island, on the southern por- 
tion of which is built the English Town, 
united to the mainland by three bridges, 
and containing the most ancient build- 
120 



LIMERICK 

ings. In contradistinction is the Irish 
Town, which lies to the south of it and 
more in the direction of the railway sta- 
tion. These two districts comprised the 
fortified old town. Up to Edward II. 's 
time only the English Town had been de- 
fended by walls and towers, but these 
were subsequently extended so as to in- 
clude Irish Town, which was entered by 
St. John's Gate. The eastern portion 
of the walls, in parts forty feet high, is 
still fairly preserved. 

Newtown Pery, the district between 
this and the river, was then bare, but hav- 
ing come into the possession of the Pery 
family (Earls of Limerick), it was specially 
built upon, and is now equal to any city 
in Ireland for the breadth and cleanli- 
ness of its streets. Of these the principal 
is George's Street, a handsome thorough- 
fare of nearly a mile in length, giving off 
others on each side at right angles, with 
a statue of O'Connell, by Hogan, erected 
in 1857, at the south end of it in Rich- 
mond Place. There is also, to the north, 
a monument to the memory of Lord Mont- 
eagle. 

The name " Limerick" is derived from 
the Irish Luimneach, the name of a por- 
121 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

tion of the Shannon, by the corruption 
of n to r. Like most of the Irish seaports, 
it was founded in the ninth century by 
the Danes, who were subdued by Brian 
Boru when he assumed the sovereignty 
over Munster, and Limerick thus became 
the royal city of the Munster kings. Af- 
ter passing through the usual stages of 
intestine native war, its next important 
epoch was marked by the erection of a 
strong fortress by King John, who com- 
mitted the care of it to the charge of Will- 
iam de Burgh. Bruce took it in 1 31 6, 
and remained there for some months. 
From that time, with a few intervals of 
check, it steadily gained in importance 
until the reign of Elizabeth, when it was 
made the centre of civil and military ad- 
ministration. In 1641 it held out for some 
time against the Irish, but was taken 
by them. It was defended in 1651 by 
Hugh O'Neill against Ireton, during a six 
months' siege. Here, next year, Ireton 
died of the plague. 

But the great episode in the history 
of Limerick took place during the wars 
of William and James, when the events 
occurred which fastened on it the name 
of the "City of the Violated Treaty/' Af- 
122 



LIMERICK 

ter the fall of Athlone and Galway, Try- 
connell, the Lord Lieutenant, still held 
Limerick as the last stronghold that King 
James possessed, the city having been 
previously unsuccessfully assaulted by 
the English under William at the head 
of about twenty-six thousand men in 1690. 
Lauzun, the French general, said "it 
could be taken with roasted apples/' and 
leaving it to its fate, went to Galway and 
embarked for France. William's army 
was wanting in artillery, and he awaited 
the arrival of a heavy siege-train from 
Dublin. The convoy was arrested by 
Sarsfield, who started at night with six 
hundred horsemen on the Clare side and 
crossed the Shannon at Killaloe. The 
next night he fell on them and took pos- 
session of the train. He filled the can- 
non with powder, buried their mouths in 
the earth, and, firing the whole, utterly 
destroyed them. More cannon arrived 
from Waterford, and William pressed for- 
ward the siege. On the 27th of August, 
a breach having been effected, a terrific 
assault was made, lasting four hours, in 
which the women of Limerick were con- 
spicuous in the defence; the besiegers 
were repulsed, losing about two thou- 
123 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

sand men. In consequence of the swampy 
nature of the ground and the advanced 
season, William raised the siege. A fit 
of apoplexy carried off Tyrconnell, when 
the government, both civil and military, 
fell into the hands of D'Usson and Sars- 
fleld. Ginkell, the commander of the 
English army, endeavored to take the 
town by an attack on the fort which 
overlooked and protected the Thomond 
Bridge. This attack is described in 
graphic and spirited language by Lord 
Macaulay, and I cannot do better than 
give the account of it in his own 
words : 

"In a short time the fort was stormed. The 
soldiers who had garrisoned it fled in confusion to 
the city. The Town Major, a French officer, who 
commanded at the Thomond Gate, afraid that the 
pursuers would enter with the fugitives, ordered 
that part of the bridge which was nearest to the 
city to be drawn up. Many of the Irish went head- 
long into the stream and perished there. Others 
cried for quarter, and held up their handkerchiefs 
in token of submission. But the conquerors were 
mad with rage ; their cruelty could not be im- 
mediately restrained, and no prisoners were made 
till the heads of corpses rose above the parapet. 
The garrison of the fort had consisted of about 
eight hundred men ; of these only one hundred and 
twenty escaped into Limerick." 
124 



LIMERICK 

The result of this capture was the fall 
of James's power in Ireland and the sign- 
ing of the famous treaty on the stone near 
the bridge on October 3, 169 1, the ninth 
article of which provided that the Roman 
Catholics should enjoy the same privileges 
of their religion as they enjoyed in the 
reign of Charles II. , and that William 
and Mary would endeavor to insure them 
immunity from disturbance on account 
of their religion. This article, however, 
was never carried into effect, although 
through no fault of William's. Large 
numbers of the Irish soldiers took service 
under France, and formed the " Irish Bri- 
gade/' famous in after years in conti- 
nental wars. Sarsfield was killed at the 
battle of Landen (1693), and it has been 
estimated that in the next half century 
four hundred and fifty thousand Irish- 
men died in the French service. For 
seventy years after the siege, the city 
was maintained as a fortress, and its ram- 
parts and gates kept in repair and guarded. 
In 1760 it was abandoned as such, its de- 
fences dismantled, and the city, thus freed, 
rapidly extended its boundaries. It has 
since, however, been a station for large 
detachments of troops, and is at the present 
125 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

day one of the most bustling and pleasant 
garrison towns. 

The Shannon is crossed by three im- 
portant bridges, of which the Thomond 
Bridge, rebuilt in 1839, claims priority 
from its ancient associations. It con- 
nects English Town with the County Clare, 
the entrance from which, through Tho- 
mond Gate, was protected by the fort men- 
tioned above and King John's Castle. 
It is one of the finest Norman fortresses 
in the kingdom, and has a river front of 
about two hundred feet, flanked by two 
massive drum towers fifty feet in diam- 
eter; the walls are of great strength, be- 
ing ten feet thick. The northern tower 
is the most ancient, and from the bridge 
traces of the cannonading it received in 
its various sieges can be clearly seen. 
It still retains its ancient gateway, but 
the modern entrance is from Nicholas 
Street. Its venerable appearance is marred 
by the addition of the modern roofs and 
buildings of the barracks into which the 
interior was converted in 1 751. The con- 
stableship of the Castle was only abol- 
ished in 1842. The "Treaty Stone," 
on which the famous treaty was signed 
in 1691, is at the western end of the bridge; 
126 



LIMERICK 

it was set upon its present pedestal in 
1865. 

Limerick is famed for the fineness of 
its laces, and at one time its gloves were 
the most costly in the market. Last, but 
not least, it is still famous for the beauty 
of its women — a reputation not unde- 
served, as may be seen even on a casual 
stroll through the streets. 



CORK AND QUEENSTOWN 

AFTER the Limerick fair was over I left 
for Cork, and arrived there just in time 
to see the race for the International Cup, 
presented by Lord O'Brien and won by 
the Leander crew, of London. There were 
a hundred thousand people on the banks 
of the river Lee to see the race, and, strange 
to say, Cork went wild over an English 
victory. 

Next day I visited the Cork Exhibi- 
tion. It had, like all minor exhibitions 
of the kind, pyramids of manufactured 
articles, including the making of various 
commodities by machinery on the spot. 
But there were a good concert band and 
a fine restaurant. I also dropped into 
the Supreme Court and heard the Lord 
Chief Justice of Ireland stop the court 
proceedings to read aloud a telegram from 
Emperor William, as well as his reply, 
in regard to the result of the boat-race. 
Imperial and Milesian " taffy " flowed 
128 



CORK AND OUEENSTOWN 

freely in both. Truly, Ireland is the 1 
of sport! 

Later on I attended the Cork steeple- 
chase. There were five events on the 
card; the jumps were difficult, and one 
horse was killed, while two or three others 
met with accidents. 

I suppose as we are now on the last lap, 
it would hardly be fair to Cork and Queens- 
town to pass them over without noticing 
them historically, so, if the reader will 
pardon me, I will take up a little more of 
his time to sketch briefly the salient feat- 
ures of these two very interesting and 
ancient towns. 

Cork is a mixture of some fine streets, 
broad quays, and many ill-paved lanes, 
the whole being set off by a charming 
frame of scenery that compensates for 
many a defect. It is a county and a city 
with a population of 97,281, and is well 
situated on the Lee, as Spenser thus de- 
scribes : 

" The spreading Lee that, like an island fayre, 
Encloseth Corke with his divided floode " — 

as it emerges from a wooded and romantic 
valley upon a considerable extent of flat, 
alluvial ground, in its course, over which 
9 129 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

it divides. The island thus formed com- 
mences about one mile above the town, is 
enclosed by the north and south channels 
of the river, and contains a large portion 
of the city. "In 1689/' says Macaulay, 
"the city extended over about one-tenth 
part of the space which it now covers, and 
was intersected by muddy streams which 
had long been concealed by arches and 
buildings. A desolate marsh, in which 
the sportsman who pursued the water- 
fowl sank deep in water and mire at every 
step, covered the area now occupied by 
stately buildings, the palaces of great 
commercial societies." 

Cork has over four miles of quays, and 
large sums of money have been spent in 
harbor improvements; vessels drawing 
twenty feet of water can discharge at all 
stages of the tide. 

The earliest notice of the town dates 
from the time of St. Fin Barre, who flourish- 
ed about the seventh century. He found- 
ed an ecclesiastical establishment on the 
south side of the chief channel of the Lee, 
and it ultimately attained to a high rep- 
utation among the schools of Ireland. 
Then the Danes, after repeatedly plunder- 
ing it, took a fancy to settling down here 
130 



CORK AND QUEENSTOWN 

themselves, and carried on a somewhat 
flourishing commerce until the Anglo- 
Norman invasion. At that time the ruling 
power was in the hands of Dermot Mc- 
Carthy, Lord of Desmond, who promptly 
made submission to Henry II. on his ar- 
rival in 1 1 72, and did him homage. For 
a long period the English held the place 
against the Irish, living in a state of al- 
most perpetual siege. They were compelled, 
Holinshed says, " to watch their gates hour- 
lie, to keepe them shut at service time, at 
meales, from sun to sun, nor suffer anie 
stranger to enter the citie with his waepon, 
but the same to leave at a lodge appointed/' 
Camden also describes it as " a little trading 
town of great resort, but so beset by rebel- 
lious neighbors as to require as constant 
a watch as if continually besieged." 

Cork took an active part in the disturbed 
history of the Middle Ages. It declared 
for Perkin Warbeck, and the mayor, John 
Walters, was hanged for abetting his pre- 
tensions. It was made the headquarters 
of the English forces during the Desmond 
rebellion. In 1649 it surrendered to Crom- 
well, who is said to have ordered the bells 
to be melted for military purposes, saying 
that, "since gunpowder was invented by 
131 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

a priest, he thought the best use for bells 
would be to promote them into cannons." 

A noticeable event in its history was the 
siege by William III.'s army under Marl- 
borough and the Duke of Wurtemburg, 
when the garrison surrendered after hold- 
ing out five days; the Duke of Grafton 
was killed on this occasion. 

Numerous monastic establishments were 
founded in early times, nearly all traces 
of which, as well as of its walls and castles, 
have been swept away. In the south- 
western district of the city is the old cathe- 
dral, small and very unlike what a cathe- 
dral should be. St. Fin Barre, the founder 
of the cathedral, was born in the neigh- 
borhood of Bandon, and died at Cloyne 
in 630. His first religious establishment 
was in an island in Lough Gouganebarra, 
but about the beginning of the seventh 
century he founded another on the south 
bank of the Lee, which became the nucleus 
of the city of Cork. He was buried here 
in his own church, and his bones were 
subsequently enshrined in a silver case; 
but these relics were carried away by 
Dermot O'Brien when he plundered the city 
in 1089. There is little of general in- 
terest in the subsequent history of the 
132 



CORK AND QUEENSTOWN 

see. In 1690, at the siege of Cork, a de- 
tachment of English troops took posses- 
sion of the cathedral and attacked the 
south fort from the tower; the cathedral 
was so much damaged that it was taken 
down in 1734 and another erected. With 
the exception of the tower, which was be- 
lieved to have formed part of the old church, 
it was a modern Doric building, with a 
stumpy spire of white limestone. The 
mode in which the funds were raised for 
its erection was the levying of a tax on all 
the coal imported for five years. This 
building stood until 1864, when it was 
taken down in order to erect the present 
structure upon its site. A cannon-ball, 
fired during the siege of 1690, was found 
in the tower, forty feet from the ground, 
and is now on a bracket within the cathe- 
dral. In laying the foundations, three 
distinct burial-places were found, one 
above the other, and the human remains 
found exhibited remarkable racial pecu- 
liarities. 

St. Anne Shandon Church is at the 
foot of Church Street, off Shandon Street, 
at the north side of the city; it was built 
in 1722, and is remarkable for its extraordi- 
nary tower, one hundred and twenty feet 
133 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

high, surmounted by a graduated turret of 
three stories, faced on two sides with red 
stone, and on the others with limestone. 

" Party-colored, like the people, 
Red and white stands Shandon steeple." 

It contains a peal of bells, immortalized 
by " Father Prout" in the famous lyric: 

"... The Bells of Shandon 
That sound so grand on 
The pleasant waters 
Of the River Lee." 

They bear the inscription : " We were 
all cast at Gloucester, in England. — Abel 
Rudhall, 1750." " Father Prout " is buried 
in the church-yard of Shandon. Shandon 
derives its name from Seandun (old fort) ; 
the name was given to the church of St. 
Mary, from its near neighborhood to 
Shandon Castle, an old seat of the 
Barrvs. 

On the way down to Queenstown we 
passed Passage West, a pretty village em- 
bosomed in woods, and a considerable 
place of call, both for travelers and others 
bound up and down the river. "Father 
Prout " has sung its praises: 
134 



CORK AND QUBBNSTOWN 

" The town of Passage is both large and spacious, 
And situated upon the say; 
Tis nate and dacent, and quite adjacent 
To come from Cork on a summer's day. 

" There you may slip in and take a dippin' 
Forenent the shippin' that at anchor ride; 
Or in a wherry cross o'er the ferry 
To Carrigaloe, on the other side." 

Near here is Monkstown, where Anas- 
tasia Gould, wife of John Archdeckan, 
while her husband was absent in a foreign 
land, determined to afford him a pleasant 
surprise by presenting him with a castle 
on his return. She engaged workmen 
and made an agreement with them that 
they should purchase food and clothing 
solely from herself. When the castle was 
completed, on balancing her accounts of 
receipt and expenditure, she found that 
the latter exceeded the former by four- 
pence. Probably this is the first example 
on record of truck practice on a large scale. 
She died in 1689, and was buried in the 
ground of the adjoining ruined church of 
Teampull-Oen-Bryn, in which is a monu- 
ment to her memory. m 

Queenstown extends for a considerable 
distance along the northern coast of the 
135 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

harbor, and from its fine .situation and the 
mildness of its climate ranks high among 
the southern watering-places. Queen Vic- 
toria landed here on August 3, 1849, of 
which she has written as follows: "To 
give the people the satisfaction of calling 
the place 'Queenstown,' in honor of its 
being the first spot on which I set foot upon 
Irish ground, I stepped on shore amidst 
the roar of cannon and the enthusiastic 
shouts of the people/' 

We visited many banks at various towns 
during our trip, and were courteously re- 
ceived by the managers. The Irish banks 
are managed on the branch system, Bel- 
fast and Dublin being the headquarters 
for the parent corporations. Belfast for 
the most part takes care of the northern 
part of the island, and Dublin the south- 
ern. These institutions are very prosper- 
ous and are conservatively managed by 
intelligent men. Banks are established in 
all towns of any importance, and where 
the population is large they usually number 
half a dozen. 

At Queenstown we went on board the 
Cunard steamer Etruria, on Sunday morn- 
ing, bound for New York. The com- 
pany's popular agent, Mr. E. Dean, obtain- 
136 



CORK AND QUEENSTOWN 

ed the captain's cabin for me on the upper 
deck, and in many other ways "killed me 
with kindness/' On looking back I find 
that my highest expectations of the trip 
were all fulfilled, and I have nothing but 
pleasant memories in connection with it. 
There were, of course, some bad moments, 
and for that matter, bad days ; but they are 
all forgotten in the recollection of the kind- 
ly Irish people and the interesting land in 
which they live. I cannot recall a single 
cross word or hard look given me by any 
one during the entire trip, excepting in 
the Derry Customs, and that doesn't count. 
We traveled over three hundred and fifty 
miles on jaunting - cars, making use of 
twenty-three of them. We traversed the 
counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, 
and Clare, and used some ten different 
boats and steamers in completing our 
journey. 

To the readers of this very imperfect 
sketch I would say that should they ever 
think of following in our footsteps, they 
should fully consider the drawbacks and 
inconveniences incident to the journey 
before deciding to start. They will meet 
with wet days, some cheerless, damp hotels, 
and sometimes poor cooking; they will 
137 



9-79 



ON AN IRISH JAUNTING-CAR 

probably not be able to get on as quickly 
or conveniently as I did, for I was born in 
Ireland and know the ways of the country 
and its people. But if they have in them 
the innate desire to see some of the finest 
natural scenery in the world, • and by all 
odds the greatest display of verdure in all 
its varying shades and colors, then perhaps 
they may risk the many disappointing 
conditions that must be overcome if they 
would see Ireland at its best. 

" Immortal little island ! no other land or clime 
Has placed more deathless heroes in the Pantheon 
of Time." 



THE END 




'"V*... V'^> \ *?&!?>'#? <* •>■%' , 







c * 




o 



<* 








O 



^* :83fc "^ -'S 




0° .>1^% °o 










.*<k 






* .V 




N. MANCHESTER, 
N %^# / INDIANA 46962 



/\ 



